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1215
The Magna Carta
In the 1200s King John of Great Britain tried to take all of the power of the country and the nobles did not want that. In 1215 the nobles of Great Britain fought back and made the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta limited the power of the king and protected certain rights for the nobles.
The Magna Carta is a government document and an agreement between individuals.
This document helped influence the writing in the Declaration of Independence. -
The Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower Compact was written to help the pilgrims figure out who was in charge of their new settlement, in North America. The men pilgrims agreed to create a new government and follow its rules. What the pilgrim men did to establish a government in is now known as self-government.
The Mayflower Compact is an agreement between individuals.
This document helped influence the writing in the Declaration of Independence and self-government in the colonies. -
The English Bill of Rights
The English Parliament had been fighting the King of England in a series of civil wars. Parliament eventually won and came up with the English Bill of Rights. Similar to the Magna Carta, this legal document expanded the rights of Parliament and the people, while limiting the power of the king even more.
The English Bill of Rights is a government document and an agreement between individuals.
Helped influence the writing in the Declaration of Independence. -
Cato's Letters
During the 1720s two authors, using fake names, Cato the Elder and Cato the Younger, published a series of articles in the newspapers of Britain, and also in the colonies. The two people argued against the king's heavy-handed rule. Cato's Letters said many things about many different ideas, one being freedom of expression, which became very important in the colonies.
Cato's Letters is a collection of newspaper articles.
Helped influence some of the ideas in the Declaration of Independence. -
Mercantilism
Mercantilism is the thought that a country should sell more goods to other countries than it buys. For mercantilism to work, Great Britain had to use the colonies for cheap, raw materials. The English Parliament required the colonies to sell raw goods to them at a low price. -
French and Indian War
The French and Indian war was Britain and France fighting over France's land, which is now Canada. After the French and Indian War ended Great Britain was in extreme debt. To cover the costs of ruling the new lands they captured in the war, Britain placed heavy taxes on the colonists. This threated the rights of the colonists and their normal taxpaying amount to the home country. -
The Stamp Act
In 1965 Parliament passed the Stamp Act on the colonists. This required colonists to add heavy taxes to their newspapers and legal documents. All of this was due to the French and Indian War which ended in Britain being in debt. -
The Declaratory Act
The same day Parliament repealed the Stamp Act they put in play the Declaratory Act. The Declaratory Act stated that Parliament had the right to tax and make decisions for the American Colonies "in all cases." -
The Townshend Act
These laws placed new taxes on goods imported to the colonies. The taxed items included basic, everyday items like glass, tea, paper, paint, and lead, that the colonists needed because they didn't produce them. When this act was put in place the colonists responded by bringing back the boycott that they used to get rid of the Stamp Act. -
The Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre, known to the British as the Incident on King Street, was an event in colonial America where British soldiers shot and killed several people. The British were being harassed by a group of anti-England, Patriots, so they decided to fight back, but in the process of doing so they made even more people in the colonies Patriots. -
The Tea Act
The Tea Act allowed the British East India Company the right to ship tea to the colonies without paying the taxes they usually had to. The act also allowed the company to go around the colonial merchants and sell the tea directly to the shopkeepers. This made the British East India Company tea cheaper, more accessible, and more favorable to the colonists than the colonial merchants. -
The Boston Tea Party
A group of colonists dressed as Native Americans and dumped 342 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor. The colonists did this to protest the taxes that had been put on their tea.
Due to the colonists dumping the tea Parliament passed the Intolerable Acts. -
The Intolerable Acts/Coercive Acts
After the colonists pulled off the Boston Tea Party Parliament passed the Intolerable Acts, which the colonists called the Coercive Acts. These laws restricted the colonists' rights, one of those rights being the right to trial by jury. They also allowed British soldiers to search, and even move into people's homes. With the ability to for British Soldiers to take over and search the colonists' home, the colonists' rights were threatened. -
The First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was assembled because Americans, the colonists, wanted rights from the King and the English Parliament. The meeting was called the First Continental Congress lasted for 7 weeks. During that period of time, the members of the Congress sent King George III a document demanding that the rights of the colonists be restored. -
Lexington and Concord
When the members of the First Continental Congress sent King Geroge III the document saying that they, the colonists, wanted all of their rights back. King George III responded back with a battle that sparked a war. These were the first battles of the Revolutionary War. Before this, a lot of the colonists thought of themselves as loyal followers of the British monarchy, but when the British were shooting at colonists their minds changed. -
The Second Continental Congress
In May of 1775, colonial leaders convened in Philidelphia for The Second Continental Congress. Some of the members didn't favor independence. Some thought the colonists could never win a war against Britain, and some were still loyal to their home country. -
Common Sense
Common Sense was written by Thomas Paine, a journalist. In Common Sense, Thomas Paine didn't introduce new ideas to the colonists but he explained the arguments for independence in a way that was easy to understand for ordinary colonists.
Common Sense is a pamphlet. Changed and influenced the ideas of some colonists.
Helped produce ideas for the Declaration of Independence. -
The Declaration of Independence
The first draft of the declaration was written by Thomas Jefferson. Then the Second Continental Congress approved the document, with a few changes, on July 4, 1776. The Declaration of Independence explained why the United States should be a free nation. This is the document that American's used to declare their freedom.
