1765-1787, Key moments in the making of the Constitution.
Within a few years of Columbus’ discovery of America many of the more powerful European nations established colonies. By the 1700s England had 13 colonies on the eastern seaboard. The early conditions meant an urge for the Puritans to co-operate. This need to co-operate, combined with the desire for individualism, strengthened the view that no single person was above, or better, than his neighbour. In 1763 Britain had come to the end of a war with France and found itself in post-war debt. The events that followed chartered the end of Britain’s control over the colonies.In 1765 Britain had introduced the Stamp Act. This imposed taxation on the colonist under the principle that they should have to contribute to the defence of the empire. All official documents, deeds, mortgages and newspapers had a special stamp, or watermark, which therefore affected virtually everyone from lawyers who worked with legal documents, to the average citizen who would read newspapers. The colonists referred to the Stamp Act as “taxation without representation,” because they were paying tax to a government which they did not elect. They felt that power was being abused and this affected the key ideas of constitutional government, which the colo
By 1776 the colonists were insecure about their future, but confident over the source of their problems and the way to deal with them. They no longer accepted the legitimacy of British rule. English philosopher, John Locke, developed the notion of social contract, and claimed that a government is given legitimacy to govern by a contract made between all members of society when that society was first created. The citizens of that society granted certain powers in the government, as long as the government used these powers to benefit all of the citizens. On July 4th 1776 the American colonies issued a Declaration of Independence from Britain. The document, which was written by Thomas Jefferson claimed that “it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it [the existing government] and to institute a new government.” On December 16th 1773 American patriot Samuel Adams led a group of 100 rebel Bostonians in a demonstration against the duty on tea. Disguised as native Americans they boarded three ships that had docked in The Harbour of Boston Bay and threw the crates of tea overboard. This became known as The Boston Tea Party. The events from the Stamp Act in 1765 through to the establishment of a constituti
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Stamp Act,
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Thomas Jefferson,
John Locke,
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Virginia Assembly,
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Approximate Word count = 823
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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