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• The colonists rebelled and the act was repealed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