A single person ruling a country, however he sees fit, no matter how cruelly is a convenient and good

thing.Take a position and write at least a one

sentence response to this prompt explaining

why you agree or disagree

Agree Disagree

APK: Activation of Prior Knowledge

Section 1

Key Vocabulary

Key Vocabulary Terms Using the Cornell Note style explain in your own words what

each of the following terms means and why they were important

Monarchy Magna Carta Legislature Parliament Colony Jamestown Mercantilism Mayflower Compact Social Contract House of Burgesses Common Law

Our English Heritage

The Roots of American Democracy

Question of the Day

Why did common English people seek freedom for themselves?

English culture

For centuries before England colonized the new world she was ruled

by a Monarchy.

Many of these monarchs held absolute power.

Power over everyone and every thing.

From where did this power come?

Source of power was land and money.

Kings and Queens secured loyalty from nobles by sharing this wealth.

The greed of the monarchy eventually led to abuse.

Taking back land, jailing and overtaxing nobles.

Magna Carta Royal greed and

harsh treatment led to rebellion.

The English gentry [nobles and knights] forced King John into concessions.

The Magna Carta: The Great Charter

The concessions by the king were listed in the Magna Carta in 1289.

What were they?

Freedom of religion, right to justice, freedom of safe travel and others.

Where did this lead? The Magna Carta represented

an agreement between the king and the knights and nobles.

Over time the group of nobles grew in size.

Because the nobles were smart, rich and powerful they became the leaders of England.

But what made them different from the king was that they were elected [some are selected by the king or queen] by the people of England.

As a result a national legislature developed called Parliament.

Parliament The legislature was called Parliament.

Parliament was set up into two [2] separate houses or chambers [House of Lords and House of Commons]

The job of this body was to propose, debate and pass laws [on behalf of the people].

The lawmakers were voted in by the people or selected by the King.

This was an example of representative democracy.

Selected by the king and serve for life and have titles such as count, baron and earl

Selected by the people of their county serve for two years

Making England Bigger

England wanted to expand and get larger.

England felt pressure to compete against France and Spain.

France and Spain had colonies England wanted to take away.

England paid for settlers to go to North America which later become the 13 colonies.

These colonies became extensions of and controlled by England.

Jamestown, Virginia The first permanent English

colony in America was Jamestown.

A settlement founded in 1607 by people seeking to succeed and get rich.

After Jamestown colonies spread throughout the east coast of America from New Hampshire to Georgia.

Financial Control of the Colonies

Maintaining colonies was very expensive.

Settlers wanted to keep the hard earned money they made.

England wanted to exploit the colonies and its settlers for the good of the mother country.

England “got tough” and began a system called mercantilism.

Forced colonies to do business only with England [this concept helped England make a profit by making more money than they spent].

This idea was made popular by the English economist Adam Smith

Englishmen with new ideas

In 1620 a boatload of Englishmen left the oppression of England for America.

They hoped for more religious and financial freedom.

Before the Pilgrims exited the ship they drafted a document filled with rules called the Mayflower Compact.

The rules and regulations were agreed to and signed by all men aboard.

This was an example of direct democracy in America.

The people were directly involved in deciding the rules without representatives.

The Social Contract

Many smart and powerful English spoke out against the tyranny of the King.

One of the most famous of all was John Locke.

Based on his personal experience Locke believed the only legal government was one with the consent of the people.

This concept was called the Social Contract which was written in the late 1600’s.

Democracy in America

The King began to grant mild freedoms to the American colonies.

Colonists were allowed to from Houses of Burgesses [legislatures].

These were the first lawmaking bodies in the English American colonies.

All laws had to met approval of Parliament.

This was an example of representative democracy.

Common Law

This type of law was brought to America from English courts.

Different from other types of laws because they were not passed by legislatures.

Judges’ decisions [rulings] became examples that acted as laws.

When judges decided new cases they looked at past decisions, called precedents, for assistance in making rulings.

Incident-Something that happens.Precedent-Something that happened

before. Pre-The past, before.

The Example

1995

Peter Smith’s dog escapes from his home and bites the neighbor. The attack caused a gash that required medical treatment including stitches. The incident resulted in a court case with a judge ruling $500 in favor of the dog bite victim.

2005

While walking his dog Steve Jones lost control of the leash and it bit a mailman. The bite sent the victim to the emergency room to receive expensive medical attention. There were no existing laws covering dog bites. The judge in this case researched past cases, precedents, and agreed with the 1995 ruling which he decided was fair and awarded the same $500.

Sources

http://mal.sbo.hampton.k12.va.us/fourth/socstudies/imagesss/13colonies.jpg

http://mysite.verizon.net/brewstersociety/MayflowerCompact.jpg

http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/02016/images/C_celtic-crucifix~100.jpg

http://www.biblehelp.org/images/stacks%20of%20money.jpg

http://fixedreference.org/2006-Wikipedia-CD-Selection/images/50/5051.jpg

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/7/7d/220px-AdamSmith.jpg

http://www.apva.org/tour/vamap.jpg