Civics and Government - Unit 2
The Historic Origins of American Political Ideals and Democratic Rule:
Classical and European history through the colonial America to the framing of the U.S. Constitution
K.U.D.
Know (Concepts)
Understand (Big Ideas)
Do (Competencies)
The “Know” are the facts and figures related to the topics.
These are ideas that can easily be researched to find the
answer. They are those bits of general information that are
“good to know.”
“Understand” refers to the concepts and the “Big Ideas” of the
unit. In ten years from now, this is what you want your students
to remember.
The “Do” section of the objective refers to the actual skills
needed to learn. These are measurable actions students will
complete to investigate a topic.
(Concepts, Abstract Big Ideas, Makes learning meaningful
to students, Connects topic to other topics.)
(Skills, Actions, Performance)
(Facts, Definitions, Dates, Names, Places)
(Written as noun phrases.)
1) The first civilization to experiment with democracy was
Athens (ancient Greece) around 500 B.C.
2) The Roman senator and statesman Cicero advocated the
concept of limited government and just laws based upon
nature during the Roman Republic.
3) The Magna Carta, signed in 1215 in England, saw the first
limitations of royal power by a written contract between a ruler
and his subjects.
4) Many of the provisions of the English Petition of Rights
(1682) and Bill of Rights (1688) were incorporated into the U.S.
Constitution and U.S. Bill of Rights.
5) Following the Dark Ages, the Enlightenment began a
philosophical revolution in how man should be governed.
6) The concept of Natural Laws began to supersede the notion
that kings and queens were infallible.
7) English philosopher Thomas Hobbes first advocated the
concept of the Social Contract; that man voluntarily left a state
of nature to gain the benefits of an orderly civilization.
8) Hobbes articulated that man, benefitting from being part of
society, did not have a say in the type of government that ruled
over him.
9) English philosopher John Locke had a profound influence on
the authors of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S.
Constitution, and the U.S. Bill of Rights.
10) Locke articulated that the social contract was not binding;
people had the right to change an unjust government if it did
not serve the well being of society.
11) Charles Louis de Montesquieu, the French Enlightenment
philosopher, articulated the need for separation of powers
(branches) to prevent the concentration of power in tyrants.
12) Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the French Enlightenment
philosopher, advocated that sovereignty should rest in the
hands of the people through their elected legislature.
13) Voltaire, the French philosopher, promoted political
tolerance of religion, speech, press, and the right to own
private property.
14) After the English secured North America, they set up three
basic types of colonies: royal, proprietary, and charter.
15) Pennsylvania was a proprietary colony set up by William
Penn.
16) There were three primary catalysts that lead to the break of
the American colonies from Great Britain: Mercantilism, the
French and Indian War (1754 to 1763), and taxes.
17) The Boston Tea Party was a protest against British taxes
that sparked a harsh British crackdown on the colonies.
18) The First Continental Congress (1774) was an attempt to
unite the colonies in opposition to Great Britain’s heavyhanded tactics; the colonies failed to reach consensus.
20) The first outbreak of open violence between the colonists
and the British occurred in 1775 at Lexington and Concord,
Massachusetts.
21) The Second Continental Congress issued the Declaration
of Independence on July 4, 1776.
22) Thomas Jefferson, borrowing heavily from the previous
work of John Locke, wrote the Declaration of Independence.
23) The Declaration of Independence contains three parts: a
preamble which declares human rights to be self-evident, a list
of twenty-seven grievances, and a conclusion that expresses
the colonists’ determination to separate from Great Britain.
24) Following the Declaration of Independence, every new
state adopts a state constitution that provides from three
branches of government.
25) The Articles of Confederation was the first governing
document of the new United States.
26) The new nation referred to their government as a “League
of Friendship.”
27) The Articles provided for a unicameral legislature with
equal representation for all states regardless of size.
28) The Articles were very ineffective and weak; there was no
power for the national government to raise taxes, no national
executive, and states wielded more power than the national
government.
29) Shay’s Rebellion demonstrated that the Articles could no
longer function effectively.
30) A convention was called in 1787 in Philadelphia to amend
the Article of Confederation.
31) The delegates decided that the Articles were flawed
beyond repair.
32) Two new plans were put forth for organizing a new
government: the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan.
33) The Virginia Plan favored heavily populated states while
the New Jersey Plan was more concerned with equality of
state.
34) The Great Compromise combined elements of both plans
and allowed the new constitution to be agreed upon.
(Written as a complete sentence.)
1) American democracy can trace its historical roots to ancient
Greece, the Roman Republic, Medieval England, and the
Enlightenment movement that swept Europe from the 1680s to
1800.
2) Magna Carta fundamentally challenged the notion of a royal
ruler with unlimited power and authority.
3) The struggle for just / good government continued in
England for centuries and continued in the American colonies.
4) The Enlightenment / Age of Reason fundamentally changed
the way philosophers viewed the role of government and the
nature of law in society.
5) Geographic factors such as distance and the untamed
frontier helped to morph the British colonialists into
independent, self-reliant Americans capable of self-rule.
6) The American colonist helped to spark by French and Indian
War by illegally settling in lands beyond the Appalachian
Mountains.
7) The colonists did not share a national identify until the
problems of excessive taxation forced them to unite against the
British.
8) The Declaration of Independence has transcended its
original purpose of declaring a separation of the colonies from
Great Britain; today it is revered for its embrace of universal
natural rights first articulated by John Locke and later adapted
by Thomas Jefferson.
9) The colonists’ strong distrust of centralized government
resulted in a pitifully weak national government under the
Articles of Confederation.
10) The time period following the American Revolution was
filled with fear and uncertainty that the new nation could
effectively govern itself.
11) Shay’s Rebellion highlighted fears that the nation was
tittering on anarchy and mob rule due to the lack of a strong
national government.
12) The mandate of the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 was
to amend the Article of Confederation to make the national
government more responsive to crisis like Shay’s Rebellion; it
was not empowered to create a new government.
13) The Framers of the U.S. Constitution overthrew the
government of the United States created by the Articles of
Confederation.
14) The Constitution Convention was bitterly divided on a
number of issues including the scope and scale of a new
national government, the composition of the legislature, and
the status of African-American slaves for the purpose of
representation in the new national government.
15) The only delegate to the convention who came with a plan
for a new government was James Madison who envisioned a
truly national government that represented the people no
matter where they lived.
16) Small states were alarmed at the prospect of losing their
sovereignty at the expense of the more populated states of
New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
17) The Great or Connecticut Compromise maintained the core
of the Virginia Plan while creating a separate house (the
Senate) for state’s interests to be heard.
18) A key compromise between the northern and southern
states dealt with the issue of slavery, representation, and
taxes.
19) The U.S. Constitution is often referred to as a bundle of
compromises; the Framers did not think it was a perfect
document.
20) The U.S. Constitution is considered a skeletal document; it
is only 7,000 words in length and allows for an amendment
process to change it.
21) The ratification of the U.S. Constitution was a bitter affair
that saw the birth of America’s first two political parties.
22) The United States continues to have the world’s oldest
written constitution.
(Written as verb phrases.)
1) Identify Athens, Greece as the birthplace of democracy circa
500 B.C. and explain the strengths and shortcomings of
Athenian democracy.
2) Compare Greek democracy with representative government
under the Roman Republic.
3) Articulate the contributions of the Roman philosopher and
statesman Cicero to the concept of limited government and the
nature of law.
4) Explain the significance of the Magna Carta (1215) in
regards of limits placed on royal authority and the
enshrinement of natural rights.
5) Specify some of the major provisions contained in the
Petition of Rights (1682) and the English Bill of Rights (1688)
that further curtailed the power of government.
6) Compare and contrast how the Age of Enlightenment
differed from the political belief systems of the Dark Ages.
7) Provide examples of the contributions of the following
Enlightenment philosophers: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke,
Charles-Louise de Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and
Voltaire.
8) Compare and contrast the “State of Nature” and the “Social
Contract”.
9) Articulate the fundamental difference between Hobbes and
Locke’s views of the Social Contract and how Locke’s writings
had a profound impact on the Founders.
10) Identity the three types of British colonies that were
established in North America.
11) Speculate how colonial self-government laid a foundation
for the future movement towards independence from Britain.
12) Assess the influence of the following on helping the
colonies to break with Great Britain: Mercantilism, The French
and Indian War, and Taxes.
13) Assess how the following events helped to unite the
colonies: The Stamp Act of 1765, The Boston Tea Party, The
Coercive / Intolerable Acts.
14) Compare and contrast the successes and failures of the
First and Second Continental Congresses.
15) Outline the goals of the Declaration of Independence.
16) Evaluate the impact of John Locke had on Thomas
Jefferson when drafting the Declaration of Independence.
17) Speculate why the newly independent states adopted a
confederation as a governmental structure.
18) Outline the weaknesses / shortcomings of the Articles of
Confederation.
19) Differentiate between a unicameral and bi-cameral
legislature.
20) Judge the impact of Shay’s Rebellion as a catalyst for reinventing government.
21) Layout the mandates and goals of the delegates who
attended the Philadelphia convention in 1787.
22) Compare and contrast the provisions of the New Jersey
Plan and the Virginia Plan.
23) Explain why James Madison is considered to be the father
of the U.S. Constitution.
24) Highlight the major features of the new government
created under the Great/Connecticut Compromise.
25) Explain the necessity for the 3/5th Compromise.
26) Identify and explain the importance of the Federalists and
Anti-Federalist during the ratification process.
27) Explain the importance of the Federalist Papers.
28) Define what a “faction” is according to Madison in
Federalist #10 and why they are impossible to control.
29) Speculate how the Framers felt about human nature and
mankind’s limitation in governing itself justly.
30) Identify the primary authors of the Federalist papers:
James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay.
35) James Madison is considered to the father of the U.S.
Constitution.
36) Elements of the new constitution included a bi-cameral
legislature (House of Representatives based on population,
Senate based on state equality), a single independent
executive, an electoral college system, and the 3/5ths
Compromise over the issue of slavery.
37) The battle over the ratification of the U.S. Constitution
witnessed the birth of the first political parties. The Federalist
supported the ratification of the new constitution. The AntiFederalists were opposed to the new constitution.
38) One of the greatest concerns of the Anti-Federalists was
the lack of a Bill of Rights.
39) James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay
authored a series of pamphlets known as the Federalist
Papers that advocated the adoption of the new constitution.
40) Political scientists believe that the most important
Federalist paper written was Federalist #10 authored by James
Madison.
41) The U.S. Constitution was finally ratified (after of promise
of the first congress to adopt a Bill of Rights) on June 21, 1788.