Transcript
By: Tessa Hoffmann, Rachel
Navarro & Emma Hadley
Types of Government:
• Monarchy-ruled by a king or queen
• Dictatorship- ruled by one with military force
• Theocracy-ruled by religious leaders
• Oligarchy-ruled by few
• Democracy-ruled by citizens
2 types of Democracy-
Direct-all citizens have a chance to vote for any law/action
Representative-citizens elect officials to make decisions on
their behalf
Branches of Government-
• Legislative branch-makes laws
• Executive branch-enforces laws
• Judicial branch-interprets laws
• England has historically been a monarchy
• King John 1 signed the Magna Carta which established
these current rights:
• Accused are guaranteed a trial by jury
• Accused are innocent until proven guilty
• All citizens are guaranteed justice
• All citizens have to follow the same laws and will be punished
the same for breaking those laws
Parliament-
• Originally the kings advisors
• The first time Parliament had more power than
the king was during the Glorious Revolution
• Used common laws (based on customs and
precedents) to make decisions
• This was a time when Europeans began to question
traditional ideas about many areas, especially
government and how it should be run.
Here are some enlightenment philosophers…
Helped pave the way to the American Revolution. He
believed…
• The purpose of government is to protect natural rights
(life,liberty,property…)
• In a social contract where citizens agree to give up some
freedoms for protection from the government
Baron de Montesquieu- he believed government power
should be split into three branches
Jean-Jacques Rousseau-he believed all men are created
equal
Voltaire-he believed in separation of church and state
Early government in the Colonies-
• Mayflower Compact: established self-government by
written law in Plymouth Colony
• House of Burgesses: first form of representative set up in
VA colony
The king only allowed the colonies to trade with England
which made England richer and more powerful. This is
called Mercantilism.
• Late 1750’s to early 1760’s
• England and the colonies fought France for a part of
American land
• This war caused heavy debt so the colonist were taxed
by the British crown
• Said colonists couldn’t settle west of the Appalachian
mountains
• Colonists didn’t like this law
• All printed documents now had to have a stamp
• The colonists rebelled and the act was repealed
• Lead to the Boston Massacre where 5 colonists were
killed
• England passed the Tea Act which taxed tea
• Sons of Liberty lead a revolt and dumped all to the tea
from British tea ships into the Boston Harbor
• Was a form of punishment for the Boston Tea Party
• Formally called the Townsend Acts
• Said there would be no trial by jury in the colonies
• The Quartering Act forced colonists to house and feed
British soldiers
• Set a up a blockade on Boston Harbor which put
hardships on Boston residents
• Held in Pennsylvania
• All colonies were represented except Georgia
• Sent King George III the Declaration of Rights and
Grievances asking him to repeal the acts, marking the
first time the colonies acted together against the crown
• King George III responded with the battles of Lexington
and Concord, defeating the colonists both times
• Held in Massachusetts
• All colonies were represented
• Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense calling for
independence from England
• After lots of debate, delegates decided to send a
Declaration to the King
• Thomas Jefferson was the main writer, basing his ideas
off of those of the enlightenment philosophers
• It listed 27 complaints against England
• Led to the American Revolutionary War
Problems facing the United States-
• Heavy debt
• Federal government had no power to tax so states
placed heavy taxes on citizens causing many businesses
to fail
• First form of American government
• Had a unicameral congress with each state getting one
vote
• Had no executive or judicial branch
• Each state had only one vote
• Had no power to tax
• Couldn’t regulate foreign or interstate trade
• No executive branch
• No judicial branch
• Unanimous vote needed to amend the AC’s
• 9 out of 13 states was required to pass laws
• An army was created to prevent farmers from losing their
land
• Government had a hard time stopping it
• Led the US to realize that they needed a stronger central
government
• Delegates had to choose to amend the AC’s or scrap
them and start over
• Had to choose to have one large state or set up a federal
system where power was divided between a central
government and states
Virginia Plan-
• Proposed by James Madison
• Supported by states with large populations
• Called for representation based on population
New Jersey Plan-
• Proposed by William Patterson
• Supported by states with small population
• Called for equal representation
• Set up a bicameral legislature
• Senate would have equal representation
• House of Representation would have representation
based on population
• The most important compromise at the Convention
• Slave states wanted to count slaves as a part of the
population
• Decided that they could count 3 out of every 5 slaves as
a part of the population
• Anti-federalists didn’t support ratification because they
feared the central government would be too strong
• Federalists supported ratification; wrote the Federalist
Papers supporting stronger central government;
promised to add a Bill of Rights if the Anti-federalists
ratified the Constitution
• 9 out of 13 states had to ratify the Constitution before it
went into effect
• Went into effect on June 21, 1788
• The Constitution could only be amended by a vote of the
states
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