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Sep 7, 1215
Magna Carta
Magna Carta, meaning ‘The Great Charter’, is one of the most famous documents in the world. Originally issued by King John of England as a solution to the political crisis he faced in 1215, Magna Carta established for the first time the principle that everybody, including the king, was subject to the law. -
Jamestown
Three ships arrived in Virginia to establish the first English colony Jamestown. The English Crown wanted this land for it resources, but sadly didn't find the riches that the Spanish had, In fact, the town almost failed to survive the first two years of its establishment. New settlers and supplies are what kept the colony going. -
Mayflower Compact
The 1620 agreement was a legal instrument that bound the Pilgrims together when they arrived in New England. The core members of the Pilgrims were Purists while others followed the Church of England, the only legal church in England at that time. They left England for the sake of religious freedom which would later be a fundamental right in America. -
The Petition of Right
The Petition of Right of 1628 is one of England's most famous Constitutional documents. It was written by Parliament as an objection to an overreach of authority by King Charles I. During his reign, English citizens saw this as a major infringement on their civil rights. -
Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights is largely a statement of certain positive rights that its authors considered that citizens and/or residents of a free and democratic society needs to have. It asserts the Subject's right to petition the Monarch and the Subject's right to bear arms for defense. It also sets out certain constitutional requirements where the actions of the King require the consent of the governed to be represented in Parliament. Many of its ideas were used in the U.S. Bill of Rights -
The Albany Plan of Union
The Albany Plan of Union was a plan to place the British North American colonies under a more centralized government. On July 10, 1754, representatives from seven of the British North American colonies adopted the plan. Although never carried out, the Albany Plan was the first important proposal to conceive of the colonies as a whole united under one government. -
The Stamp Act
The new tax was imposed on all American colonists and required them to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper they used. Ship's papers, legal documents, licenses, newspapers, other publications, and even playing cards were taxed. The money collected by the Stamp Act was to be used to help pay the costs of defending and protecting the American frontier near the Appalachian Mountains. The colonies were angered by this because of the powerlessness they had in the decision of the law. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was the killing of five colonists by British soldiers 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 that was enacted by the Townsend Acts. -
The Boston Tea Party
This famed act of American colonial defiance served as a protest against taxation. Hoping to boost the troubled East India Company, British Parliament adjusted import duties with the passage of the Tea Act in 1773. While ports in Charleston, New York, and Philadelphia rejected tea shipments, merchants in Boston refused to give in to the Patriots. One night , Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty boarded three ships in the Boston harbor and threw 342 chests of tea overboard dressed as Indians. -
The Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts were the American Patriots' term for a series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea party. Four of the acts were issued in direct response to the Boston Tea Party; the British Parliament hoped these measures would, by making an example of Massachusetts, end the trend of colonial resistance to parliamentary authority that had begun with the Stamp Act. -
The First Continental Congress
Delegates from each of the 13 colonies except for Georgia(which was dependent on the British to end an indian uprising) met in Philadelphia as the First Continental Congress to organize colonial resistance to Parliament’s Coercive Acts. The delegates included some prominent figures, such as John Adams, George Washington, and John Jay. The Congress was based on the emphasis that everyone was equal and free to debate. It was the start of what America's future government. -
The American Revolution
The American Revolution started as conflict arose from growing tensions between residents of Britain’s 13 North American colonies and the colonial government, which represented the British crown. Battles between British troops and minute men in Lexington and Concord started the battle and by the summer the rebels were waging a full-scale war for their independence. France entered the Revolution on the side of the colonists and aided the colonists independence at the Battle of Yorktown -
The Second Continental Congress
The Second Continent Congress met on the cusp of the American revolution. There, they established the Continental Army and named George Washington as Commander in Chief. The also approved the Olive Branch Petition which supported the King, but disproved of the parliament. -
The Declaration of Independence
This document established the independence of the 13 colonies. It declared them sovereign states and gave citizens rights that set the foundation of America. -
The Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation was the first written constitution of the United States.Under these articles, the states remained sovereign and independent, with Congress serving as the last resort on appeal of disputes.Congress was also given the power to make treaties and alliances, maintain armed forces and coin money. However, the central government lacked the ability to levy taxes and regulate commerce, issues that led to the Constitutional Convention for the creation of new federal laws. -
Shay's Rebellion
Shay's rebellion was a protest led by farmers against state and local taxes and calls for debt. Although they took up arms in states from New Hampshire to South Carolina, the rebellion was most serious in Massachusetts, where bad harvests, economic depression, and high taxes threatened farmers with the loss of their farms. The rebellion took its name from its symbolic leader, Daniel Shays of Massachusetts, a former captain in the Continental army. -
Constitution Convention
The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia met to address the problems of the weak central government that existed under the Articles of Confederation. The United States Constitution that emerged from the convention established a federal government with more specific powers, including those related to conducting relations with foreign governments. The executive branch was given most of the foreign affairs responsibilities while legislative branch kept the power of treaty ratifications -
Connecticut Compromise
a plan proposed by Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth, Connecticut’s delegates to the Constitutional Convention, established a two-house legislature. The Great Compromise, or Connecticut Compromise as it is often called, proposed a solution to the heated debate between larger and smaller states over their representation in the newly proposed Senate. The Senate benefited smaller states while the House of Representatives catered to the larger states. -
Philadelphia Convention
On May 25, 1787, a week later than scheduled, delegates from the various states met in the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia. Among the first orders of business was electing George Washington president of the Convention and establishing the rules that would guide the proceedings. The Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan were presented here. The Virginia plan supported strong National Government, while the New Jersey plan was against it.
