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Period: Feb 2, 1200 to
Revolutionary Period
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Jun 15, 1215
Magna Carta
Limited the power of the English King and guranteed the influnceof Parliment. It promised the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown, to be implemented through a council of 25 barons. -
Petition of Rights
A document signed in 1628 that required the Englifh King to obey the law of the land and increased the influnce of Parliment. The Petition contains restrictions on non-Parliamentary taxation, forced billeting of soldiers, imprisonment without cause, and the use of martial law. -
English Bill of Rights
A document signed in1689 that required free elections and guranteed permanent basic rights. The English Bill of Rights limited the power of the English sovereign, and was written as an act of Parliament. -
Albany Plan of Union
A proposal to create a unified government for the Thirteen Colonies, suggested by Benjamin Franklin, and a delegate from Pennsylvania, at the Albany Congress in July 1754 in Albany, New York. The Plan represented one of multiple early attempts to form a union of the colonies "under one government as far as might be necessary defense and other general important purposes". -
Boston Massacre
Known as the Incident on King Street by the British, in which British Army soldiers killed five male civilians and injured six others. British troops had been stationed in Boston, capital of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, since 1768 in order to protect and support crown-appointed colonial officials attempting to enforce unpopular Parliamentary legislation. -
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a protest, by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, against taxation. The demonstrators, some disguised as American Indians, destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company, -
Declaration of Independence
Adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. Instead they formed a new nation he United States of America. John Adams was a leader in pushing for independence, which was unanimously approved on July 2. A committee of five had already drafted the formal declaration, to be ready when Congress -
First Continental Congress
Was a declaration of rights to King George that protested Britain's colonial policies. This urged colonists to boycott trade with England until hated laws were repealed. -
Second Continental Congress
A continental army was created and George Washington was masde Commander-in-chief. This congress became America's first national government, from 1776-1778. -
Articles of Confederation
A document signed among the thirteen original colonies that established the United States of America as a confederation of sovereign states and served as its first constitution. Its drafting by a committee appointed by the Second Continental Congress began on July 12, 1776, and an approved version was sent to the states for ratification in late 1777. -
Shay's Rebellion
Shays’ Rebellion is the name given to a series of protests in 1786 and 1787 by American farmers against state and local enforcement of tax collections and judgments for debt. Although farmers took up arms in states from New Hampshire to South Carolina, the rebellion was most serious in Massachusetts, where bad harvests, economic depression, and high taxes threatened farmers with the loss of their farms. -
Philadelphia Convention
Addressed problems in governing the US, which had been operating under the Articles of Confederation following independence from Great Britain. Although the Convention was intended to revise the Articles of Confederation, the intention from the outset of many of its proponents, chief among them James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, was to create a new government rather than fix the existing one. -
Virginia Plan
Was a proposal by Virginia delegates for a bicameral legislative branch. The plan was drafted by James Madison while he waited for a quorum to assemble at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. -
New Jersey Plan
A proposal for the structure of the United States Government presented by William Paterson at the Constitutional Convention on June 15, 1787. The plan was created in response to the Virginia Plan, which called for two houses of Congress, both elected with apportionment according to population.
