🏰Magna Carta
This 1215 document was the first to limit the power of the English king.
What is the Magna Carta?
Signed in 1620, this agreement created the first example of self-government in the colonies.
What is the Mayflower Compact?
Written in 1689, this document further limited the power of the monarchy.
What is the English Bill of Rights?
This American founding document reflected Locke’s belief in protecting natural rights.
What is the Declaration of Independence?
The Founding Fathers used Enlightenment ideas to protect these freedoms.
What are individual freedoms?
OR
What are natural rights?
This principle from the Magna Carta says the government must follow established legal procedures when someone is accused of a crime.
What is due process of law?
The Mayflower Compact introduced this idea that governments get their power from the people.
What is consent of the governed?
This English document guaranteed citizens protection from cruel or excessive punishments.
What is the English Bill of Rights?
This Enlightenment thinker believed in a government divided into branches to prevent tyranny.
Who was Montesquieu?
Montesquieu’s separation of powers influenced this U.S. document’s structure.
What is the Constitution?
The Magna Carta guaranteed the right to this kind of trial.
What is the right to a fair trial?
The English Bill of Rights declared that citizens could not be taxed without this.
This writer argued that it was “common sense” for the colonies to break away from Britain.
Who was Thomas Paine?
Montesquieu’s concept that divides government power into legislative, executive, and judicial branches.
What is separation of powers?
Locke’s theory that people have rights simply because they are human beings.
What is natural law?
This phrase describes how the Magna Carta influenced colonists to believe leaders should obey laws too.
What is limited government?
OR
What is rule of law?
The English Bill of Rights protected this trio of basic rights: life, liberty, and ____.
What is property?
Paine’s Common Sense spread revolutionary ideas because it was written with this type of language?
What is plain or simple language?
This philosopher believed people are born with natural rights to life, liberty, and property.
Who was John Locke?
The Enlightenment taught that governments exist to serve this group.
Who are the people (or the governed)?
By limiting the king’s authority through a written agreement, the Magna Carta introduced this foundational concept of accountability.
What is constitutional government?
This pamphlet encouraged colonists to seek independence through representative self-government.
What is Common Sense?
The ideas from the English Bill of Rights and Common Sense together promoted this kind of government.
What is representative self-government?
Locke’s idea that people agree to form governments to protect their rights.
What is the social contract?
Montesquieu’s and Locke’s ideas helped the Founders design this system that prevents any branch from becoming too powerful. AKA: Each branch prevents the other branches from taking too much power.
What is checks and balances?