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Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta
It was used to curb the king and make him govern by the old English laws that had prevailed before the Normans came. It was a collection of 37 english laws- some copied, some recollected and some old and some new. -
Petition of Right
Is a major English constitutional documentthat sets out specific liberties of the subject that the king in prohibited from infinging. It contains restrctions on non-Parlimentary taxation, forced billeting of soldiers, imprisonment without cause, and resticts the use of martial laws. -
English Bill of Rights
It lays down limits on the powers of soverign and sets out the rights of Parliament and rules for freedom of speech in Parliament, the requirement to regualr elections to Parliament and the right to petition the monarch without fear of retribution. It reestablished the liberty of Protestants to have arms for their defence within the rule of law. -
Albany Plan of Union
It was an early attempt at forming a union of the colonies. It was the first important plan to concieve of the colonies as a collective whole united under one government. -
Boston Massacre
It was when Brithish Army soldiers killed five civilian men and injured six others. It is widely vied os foreshadowing the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War five years later. -
Boston Tea Party
It was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston against the tax policy of the British Government and the East India company that controlled all the tea imported into the colonies. A group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor. -
First Continental Congress
Convention of delegates from twelve British North American colonies that met in Carpenters' hall. It was called in response to the passage of the Coercive Acts. -
Second Continental Congress
It was a convention of delegates from the thirteen colonies that started meeting after warfare in the American Revolutionary War had begun. It managed the colonial war effect, and moved incrementally towards independence. -
Declaration of Independence
Announced that the thirteen American colonies regarded themselves as independent states and no longer a part of the British Empire. It was drafted by Thomas Jefferson. -
Articles of confederation
An agreement among the 13 founding states that established the USA as a confederation of sovereign states and served as its first constitution. Its drafting by the Continental Congress began in mid 1776, and an aproved version was sent to the states for ratification in late 1777. -
Shay's Rebellion
Was an armed uprising that took place in central and western Massachusetts in 1786 and 1787. Tested the precarious institutions of the new republic, threatened to plunge the "disunited states" into a civil war. -
Philadelphia Convention
It adressed problems in governing the United States of America. The result of the Convention was the United States Constitution. -
Virginia Plan
Was notable for its role in setting the overall agenda for debate in the convention and, in particular, for setting forth the idea of population-weighed representation in the proposed national legislature. Proposed a legislative branch consisting of two chambers, with the dual principles of rotation in office and recall applied to the lower house of the national legislature. -
New Jersey Plan
Proposed an alternative to the Virginia Plan on June 15, 1787. Was designed to the security and power of the small states by limiting each state to one vote in Congress.
