Unit 2Chapter 2, Section 1

The Colonial PeriodMr. Young

2nd-5th

Essential Question

What elements of the English political heritage helped develop representative government in the American colonies?

An English Political Heritage

The English established the thirteen colonies

English system had two major principles:

1. Limited Government

2. Representative Government

Limited Government

System in which the power of the government is limited, not absolute

Magna Carta (1215)

First appears in Magna Carta (1215) and only to nobility

Petition of Rights (1628)

Severely limited King Charles 1 power

No longer collect taxes, imprison people without just cause, house troops in private homes or declare martial law without war

English Bill of Rights (1688)

Set clear limits on what a ruler could and could not do

Set up 5 key ideas

English Bill of Rights

1. Monarchs do not have absolute authority2. Monarch must have Parliaments consent

to suspend laws, levy taxes, or maintain army

3. Monarch cannot interfere with parliamentary elections and debates

4. People have right to fair and speedy trial5. No cruel and unusual punishment

Representative Government

Government in which people elect delegates to make laws and conduct government

John Locke John Locke- Two

Treatises of Government

Argued that if government failed to protect these natural rights, the people could change that government

Two other guys: Voltaire and Jean

Jacques Rousseau

Government in the Colonies

Each English colony had its own governor, a legislature, and a court system

Each had:1. A written constitution2. Legislatures of

elected representatives

3. Separation of powers between governors and legislature

Mayflower Compact (1620 First example of

colonial self-government

Great Fundamentals (1636)

First basic system of laws in the colonies

Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639)

First formal constitution or charter in the colonies

Fundamental Preamble For as much as it hath pleased Almighty God by the wise

disposition of his divine providence so to order and dispose of things that we the Inhabitants and Residents of Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield are now cohabiting and dwelling in and upon the River of Connectecotte and the lands thereunto adjoining; and well knowing where a people are gathered together the word of God requires that to maintain the peace and union of such a people there should be an orderly and decent Government established according to God, to order and dispose of the affairs of the people at all seasons as occasion shall require; do therefore associate and conjoin ourselves to be as one Public State or Commonwealth; and do for ourselves and our successors and such as shall be adjoined to us at any time hereafter, enter into Combination and Confederation together, to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus which we now profess, as also, the discipline of the Churches, which according to the truth of the said Gospel is now practiced amongst us; as also in our civil affairs to be guided and governed according to such Laws, Rules, Orders and Decrees as shall be made, ordered, and decreed as followeth

Colonial Legislature

First legislature in America: Virginia House of Burgesses

Many colonies had legislature well before the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were put into place

Separation of Powers

The division of power among the legislative, judicial, and executive branches