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.