The Declaration of Independence

The Olive Branch Petition

A document sent to the king asking him to address their complaints.

Monarch

A government ruled by a king or queen

Common Sense by Thomas Paine

A pamphlet written for the colonists that promoted the ideas: Monarchies are dangerous, America was too large to be ruled by Britain, and it was America's destiny to be an independent nation.

Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson wrote the original draft of the Declaration of Independence

The English Bill of Rights influenced the Declaration of Independence in what way?

It focused on limiting the power of the monarch.

Representative Government

Power is held by the people and exercised through the efforts of representatives elected by the people.

The First Continental Congress

September 1774, delegates from twelve colonies sent representatives to Philadelphia to discuss a response to the Intolerable Acts

The Declaration of Independence

Signed in 1776 by US revolutionaries; it declared the United States as a free state and no longer under British rule.

Thomas Paine

author of Common Sense

hereditary aristocracy

a form of government rules by a privileged family, where power is passed from father to son.

The First Continental Congress suggested that colonists boycott British goods in 1774 to protest...

unfair taxes and the Intolerable Acts

The reason Parliament raised taxes on the American colonies in the 1760s

Britain was in debt from fighting the French and Indian War. War is expensive!

9 out of 12 total

When the full Continental Congress first voted on the Declaration of Independence, 9 out of 12 people voted in favor of it.