-
Period: Jan 26, 1200 to
Aimee Garris
-
Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta
The Magna Carta is one of the most famous documents in the world. It was issued by King John of England as a solution to a political crisis he was facing in 1215. It was meant to be a peace treaty for the king and the rebel barons. The Magna Carta failed and was then rewritten in 1225 and was issued by Henry the third. -
Petition of Right
A statement of civil liberties sent by the English Parliament to Charles I. Refusal by Parliament to finance the king's unpopular foreign policy had caused his government to exact forced loans and to quarter troops in subjects' houses as an economy measure. -
English Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights was passed by Parliament on 16 December 1689. It was a re-statement in statutory form of the Declaration of Right presented by the Convention Parliament to William and Mary in March 1689, inviting them to become joint sovereigns of England. It lays down limits on the powers of sovereign and sets out the rights of Parliament and rules for freedom of speech in Parliament, the requirement to regular elections to Parliament and the right to petition the monarch. -
Albany Plan of Union
The Albany Plan was introduced by Benjamin Franklin who was a delegate for Pennsylvania. It was a proposal to create a unified government for the thirteen colonies. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was the killing of five colonists by British regulars on March 5, 1770. It was the culmination of tensions in the American colonies that had been growing since Royal troops first appeared in Massachusetts in October 1768 to enforce the heavy tax burden imposed by the Townshend Acts. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party took place in the Boston harbor. Many colonists were upset with the rise in taxes of goods, especially tea. So many colonists got together and they dressed up as indians and they snuck onto the ships of the british and threw the tea off the boats and into the harbor. -
First Continental Congress
It was a meeting of delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies early in the American Revolution. The colonies presented there were united in a determination to show a combined authority to Great Britain, but their aims were not uniform at all. Pennsylvania and New York sent delegates with firm instructions to seek resolution with England. The other colonies voices were defensive of colonial rights, but pretty evenly divided between those who sought legislative parity. -
Second Continental Congress
In May 1775, with Redcoats once again storming Boston, the Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia.The questions were different this time. First and foremost, how would the colonist meet the military threat of the British. It was agreed that a Continental Army would be created. -
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence is the nation's most cherished symbols of liberty. It is a statement that as adopted by the continental congress. It announced that the thirteen American colonies regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states and they were no longer part of the British Empire. -
Articles of confederation
The Articles of Confederation was the first written copy of the U.S. Constitution. The Articles created a loose confederation of sovereign states and a weak central government, leaving most of the power with the state governments. The need for a stronger Federal government soon became apparent and eventually led to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. -
Shay's Rebellion
Daniel Shay, a former captain in the continental army, led a revolt against the government in Massachusetts with a bunch of farmers who refused to pay the raised taxes because they were losing their farms and being thrown in jail for not having any money to pay their debts. -
Philadelphia Convention
The Philidelphia Convention was ordered so that they could over throw the American government as it had been defined by the Articles of Confederation. The process began with the proposal of James Madison's Virginia Plan. William Patterson soon countered with a plan more attractive to the new nation's smaller states. Alexander Hamilton then put forward to the delegates a third plan, a perfect copy of the British Constitution including an upper house and legislature that would serve. -
Virginia Plan
The Virginia Plan was written by James Madison who was a fellow virginian. It was proposed by Virginia delegate Edmund Randolph this plan was an outline of what would become the U.S. Constitution. -
New Jersey Plan
The New Jersey Plan was a proposal for the structure of the United States Government presented by William Paterson at the Constitutional Convention on June 15, 1787. This plan was a response to the Virginia Plan. The New Jersey Plan attempted to give small states powers in Congress equal to those of large states.
