Origins and Development of Colonial
Governments
The Colonial Period
Social Studies Survey
Essential Question
What elements of the English
political heritage helped develop
representative government in the
American colonies?
I CAN:
1. Explain why the colonists expected
representative government
2. Analyze early British documents that
helped to set up our Declaration of
Independence and Constitution
3. Describe the government of early colonial
America
An English Political Heritage


1.
2.
The English established
the thirteen colonies
English system had two
major principles:
Limited Government
Representative
Government
Limited Government
 System in which the
power of the
government is
limited, not
absolute
Magna Carta Video
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rROhCaTvyLc
 2:34 min
Magna Carta (1215)
 Also known as
Great Charter
 First appears in
Magna Carta
(1215) and only to
nobility at the
start
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:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
English Bill of Rights
Monarchs do not have absolute authority
Monarch must have Parliaments consent
to suspend laws, levy taxes, or maintain
army
Monarch cannot interfere with
parliamentary elections and debates
People have right to fair and speedy trial
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 (social
contract theory)
Government in the Colonies
Each English colony
had its own governor,
a legislature, and a
court system
 Each had:
1. A written constitution
2. Legislatures of elected
representatives
3. Separation of powers
between governors
and legislature

Mayflower Compact Video
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lJ70k-P4rw
 Start at 8:15
Mayflower Compact (1620
First example of
colonial selfgovernment
Mayflower Compact Videos
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgZPiFgptdw
 4:25 min (ok)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYr8LbFNB00&feature=fvwrel
 Creation of the mayflower Compact (3:57)
Mayflower Compact
Great Fundamentals (1636)
First basic
system of
laws in the
colonies
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
(1639)
 First formal
constitution or
charter in the
colonies
 All men have the
right to vote in
the colony
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
 Voting had property
qualifications, but land was
abundant and affordable
Separation of Powers
The division of
power among
the legislative,
judicial, and
executive
branches