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1500 BCE
Moses
Moses divinely received the Ten Commandments. Moses calls for the law to apply equally to all people, even kings, and sets forth rules for a fair trial. -
600 BCE
Old Testament
The biblical idea of a covenant, an ancient Jewish term meaning a special kind of agreement between people and God, influenced the formation of colonial governments and contributed to our constitutional structure. -
100
New Testament
The second part of the Christian Bible, written originally in Greek and recording the life and teachings of Jesus and his earliest followers. It includes the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, twenty-one epistles by St. Paul and others, and the book of Revelation. -
1215
The Magna Carta
A charter of liberties to which the English barons forced King John to give his assent in June 1215 at Runnymede. A document constituting a fundamental guarantee of rights and privileges. -
The 13 Colonies
The Thirteen British colonies in North America that joined together and became the United States of America after adopting the Declaration of Independence in 1776: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. -
The Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the male passengers of the Mayflower, consisting of separatist Puritans, adventurers, and tradesmen. The Mayflower Compact was signed aboard ship on November 11, 1620. -
The Constitution of Connecticut
This constitution replaced the earlier constitution of 1818. It is the state's second constitution since the establishment of the United States. -
The English Bill of Rights
English Bill of Rights was a British Law, passed by the Parliament of Great Britain in 1689 that declared the rights and liberties of the people and settling the succession in William III and Mary II following the Glorious Revolution of 1688 -
The House of Lords
The House of Lords is the second chamber of the UK Parliament. It is independent from, and complements the work of, the elected House of Commons. The Lords shares the task of making and shaping laws and checking and challenging the work of the government. -
The House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 members known as Members of Parliament -
The Enlightenment
An intellectual movement concentrated in France during the 1700s.
A group of philosophers including John Locke, Baron de Montesquieu, and Voltaire, sought to apply the rights of scientific inquiry to study human society. -
The French and Indian War
A series of military engagements between Britain and France in North America between 1754 and 1763. The French and Indian War was the American phase of the Seven Years' War, which was then underway in Europe. -
The Stamp Act
an act of the British Parliament in 1765 that exacted revenue from the American colonies by imposing a stamp duty on newspapers and legal and commercial documents. Colonial opposition led to the act's repeal in 1766 and helped encourage the revolutionary movement against the Crown. -
The English Common Law
the body of law developed in England primarily from judicial decisions based on custom and precedent, unwritten in statute or code, and constituting the basis of the English legal system and of the system in all of the U.S. except Louisiana. -
The Boston Tea Party
a raid on three British ships in Boston Harbor (December 16, 1773) in which Boston colonists, disguised as Indians, threw the contents of several hundred chests of tea into the harbor as a protest against British taxes on tea and against the monopoly granted the East India Company. -
The First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a meeting of delegates from twelve of the Thirteen Colonies who met from September 5 to October 26, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution. -
The Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that started meeting in the spring of 1775 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It succeeded the First Continental Congress, which met in Philadelphia between September 5, 1774, and October 26, 1774. -
The Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence is defined as the formal statement written by Thomas Jefferson declaring the freedom of the thirteen American colonies from Great Britain. -
The Articles of Confederation
the original constitution of the US, ratified in 1781, which was replaced by the US Constitution in 1789. -
The Constitution of The United States
A document that embodies the fundamental laws and principles by which the United States is governed. It was drafted by the Constitutional Convention and later supplemented by the Bill of Rights and other amendments.
