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2200 BCE
Ancient Greece
Democracy means rule by the people. In the United States we have a democracy. There are lots of civilizations and great thinkers that influenced our Founding Fathers as they developed American democracy. One of these, Ancient Greece, was a very important civilization that existed from around 2200 BCE to 130 BCE. -
1680 BCE
Iroquois
The Iroquois Confederacy was a group of six related native American nations. They were the largest native American political entity which faced the European settlement of the Americas. They fought the Beaver Wars against the Algonquian people and the Atlantic coast native American peoples, in part of controlling the Beaver fur trade and access to trade goods from European trading partners. -
689 BCE
John Locke
Individual rights is a concept that comes from many different thinkers in many different cultures. John Locke was an English philosopher. In 689 CE, he published a book about the natural rights held by every human being. Locke's ideas about natural rights helped to form the way we think about individual rights today. -
500 BCE
Ancient Roman Empire
In a representative government, the citizens elect representatives that make decisions for the people and are responsible to the people. In the United States, we elect people who represent us in Congress and we elect our President. The beginnings of government could be seen in the ancient Roman Empire. This civilization lasted from about 500 BCE to 476 BCE. Rome was originally ruled by kings, but eventually changed into a form of democracy. -
Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta
The Magna Carta had a great deal of influence on the United States Constitutions and charters around the world. It was one of the first formal documents that made a king subject to law. The Magna Carta set the stage for the idea that even governments should be accountable to the law. In 1215, the English wrote the Magna Carta and included a very important section: The King was no longer allowed to do whatever he wanted. Instead the King had to follow the "law of the land." -
Petition of Right
The Petition of Right is an English constitutional document that sets out specific liberties focusing on the subject that the king is prohibited from infringing. The Petition contains restrictions of non-Parliamentary taxation,forced billeting of soldiers, imprisonment without cause, and the use of martial law. -
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine helped shape many of the ideas that marked the Age of Revolution. Published in 1776, his highly popular “Common Sense” was the first pamphlet to advocate American independence. After writing the “Crisis” papers during the American Revolution, Paine returned to Europe and offered his defense of the French Revolution with “The Rights of Man.” -
Montesquieu
The United States has two systems of checks and balances: our three branches of government and our federal system. The first person to describe this kind of system in detail was a French thinker named Montesquieu. In 1748, Montesquieu wrote that power must be divided in government to prevent one part from becoming too powerful. Our Founding Fathers were influenced by Montesquieu when they designed our government. -
English Bill of Rights
Individual rights are things every person has a claim or privilege to have for themselves. Even though our United States democracy operates by majority rule, we consider individual rights to be very important. In order to protect all individuals, they created the Bill of Rights and attached it to the end of the Constitution. The Bill of Rights lays out the rights of all citizens in the United States.
