Standard 8.1.1

Students understand the major events preceding the founding of the nation

and relate their significance to the development of American constitutional democracy.

Great Awakening

• the period was a time of increased religious activity, particularly in New England. The First Great Awakening led to changes in Americans' understanding of God, themselves, and the world around them

Revolutionary Fervor

• a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period with passion or burning desire.

Declaration of Independence

• The Declaration justified the independence of the United States by listing colonial grievances (complaints) against King George III, and by asserting (insisting on) certain natural and legal rights, including a right of revolution (make a change)

Individual Rights

• “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

American Revolution

• 13 colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America.

• Rejected the authority of the Parliament of Great Britain to govern them from overseas without representation

The Voyage

• Great Britain to America 3,616.89 miles

Civil Republicanism

• Hobbes, John Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau.• Social contract• 3 branches of government• Natural Rights

Classical Liberal Principles

• An idea that evolved in the late 1700s.• A government should be as

small as possible in order to allow the exercise of individual freedom.

English Parliamentary Traditions

• It developed a bicameral arrangement with an upper House of Lords for the nobility and clergy, and a lower House of Commons for the shires and boroughs. The powers of the parliament were fairly great: the king could not institute a new law or tax without its consent.