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Period: Feb 2, 1200 to
Revolutionary Period
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Feb 4, 1215
Magna Carta
Magna Carta is a charter agreed by King John of England. First Drafted by by the Archbishop of Canterbury to make peace between the unpopular King and a group of rebel barons. It promised the protection of church rights,protection for the barons from illegal prisonment, access to swift justice and limitations of fuedal payments. -
Petition of Right
The Petition of Right is a major English constitution document that sets out specific liberties of the subject that the king is prohibited from infringing. -
English Bill of Rights
The English Bill Of Rights is an English precusor of the Constitution, along with the Magna Carta and the Petition of Rights. The English Bill of Rights limited the power of the English sovereign, and was written as an act of Parliament. -
Albany Plan of Union
The Albany Plan of Union was a proposal to create a unified government for the Thirteen Colonies, suggested by Benjamin Franklin, then a senior leader and a delegate from Pennsylvania, at the Albany Congress -
Boston Massacre
The killing of 5 colonists by British regulars. It was the culmation 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
A group of colonists protest thirteen years of increasing British oppression, by attacking merchant ships in Boston Harbor. In retaliation, the Birtish closed the port, and inflicted harsh penalities. -
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a meeting of delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies that met on September 5 to October 26, 1774 at Carpenters Hall. -
Second Continental Congress
A convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that started meeting in the summer of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after warfare in the American RevoluntioaryWar had begun. -
Declaration of Independence
A statement documented by the Continental Congress, which announced that the thirteen colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states, and no longer apart of the British Empire. -
Articles of Confederation
A document signed amongst the thirteen original colonies that established the Unitd States of America as a confederation of sovereign states and served as its 1st Constitution -
Shays Rebellion
An armed uprising that took place in Massachusetts. "Fundamentally alterted the course of United States history" -
Virgina Plan
Also known as the Randolph Plan, was the proposal by Virgina delegates for a bicameral legislative branch. The plan was drafted by James Madison while he waited for a quorum to assemble at the Constitution Convention of 1787. -
Philadelphia Congress
The Philadelphia Convention took place from May 25 to September 17, 1787 to address problems in governing the United States of America. Which had been operating under the Articles of Confederation following independence of Great Britain. -
New Jersey Plan
Was a proposal for the structure of the United States Government presented by William Paterson at the Constitutional Covention.