English Traditions
This English document from 1215 limited the king’s power.
What is the Magna Carta?
The first elected assembly in the colonies, founded in Virginia in 1619.
What is the Virginia House of Burgesses?
Government is not all-powerful—this principle limits what leaders can do.
What is limited government?
The United States took ideas from England but wrote them into this document.
What is the Constitution?
This ancient ruler of Babylon created one of the first written law codes.
Who was Hammurabi?
This 1689 document guaranteed the rights of English citizens.
What is the English Bill of Rights?
This type of government was run by officials appointed by the king.
What is a royal colony?
Idea that government should reflect the people’s will through elections.
What is representative government?
America’s written guarantee of freedoms inspired by England
What is the Bill of Rights?
Hammurabi’s laws were carved into this material so everyone could see them.
What is stone? (or a large stone stele)
Power shared between the Crown and Parliament inspired this idea in America.
What is representative government?
Written frameworks adopted by colonies, such as the Mayflower Compact.
What are colonial charters?
Colonists created small offices and rules to keep order, known as this.
What is ordered government?
England provided the political “building blocks,” America built this.
What is democracy/self-government?
This set of laws was given to Moses and became the foundation of Jewish moral law.
What are the Ten Commandments?
This English philosopher argued people have natural rights to life, liberty, and property.
Who is John Locke?
This New England document was an early example of self-government on a ship.
What is the Mayflower Compact?
The belief that rulers must follow laws, not just make them.
What is the rule of law?
These three ideas from England shaped how the U.S. government works today.
What are ordered, limited, and representative government?
This document said laws should apply equally to all citizens and influenced later civilizations.
What is Hammurabi’s Code? (Accept Code of Hammurabi)
This unwritten system of laws and courts developed over centuries in England.
What is English common law?
Local town-based decision making influenced later American democracy.
What are town meetings?
This concept means government powers come from the consent of the governed.
What is popular sovereignty?
This document lists the basic rights and freedoms that the government must protect.
What is the Bill of Rights?
European and American law traditions trace back to ancient Mesopotamia and this monotheistic religion.
What is Judaism?