Early Representative Government

Introduction As defined, a colony is a group of people who

leave their native country to form a community in a new land.

The harsh reality is, there are many understandings that needed to be worked out prior to people leaving their homeland: Shelter Food source Protection “Who” is going to do “what” in the

community? Who is management and who is the work force?

So the issue at hand is, how does the community get along? There has to be some set of rules or guidelines to follow. People have to agree and follow through the established rules or agreements or they will not survive!

This is what we are going to look at:

1. What type of rules or government did the colonists come from, what were they use to

2. What type of agreements, rules or self-government was established with the colonies?

3. What type of government were the Native Americans using which might have an influence on the colonists as an example?

Community

English Government

1215

1650

1689

1688

1730

Other factors to consider

Mercantilism Mercantilism stipulates that in order to build

economic strength, a nation must export more than it imports.

To achieve this favorable balance of trade, the English passed regulatory laws exclusively benefiting the British economy.

These laws created a trade system whereby Americans provided raw goods to Britain, and Britain used the raw goods to produce manufactured goods that were sold in European markets and back to the colonies.

Mercantilism – national source of income

Colonial Governments Charter Colony

When established, England government would establishing the rules of government, but the colonists a great amount of latitude. Close to self government. Proprietary Colony

A proprietary colony is where an individual or group essentially owned the colony, controlling all of the actions and institutions of government. Royal Colony

A Royal colony was one that was directly controlled by the Crown. The governments were appointed by the Crown, and carried out the orders and wishes of the Crown.

Mayflower Compact The Mayflower Compact was a social contract

where the people who signed it agreed to follow these rules or laws in exchange for shared protection.

This meant that these people would basically make their personal rights secondary to the rules/laws passed by the group to ensure protection and survival.

This was a very historical and unique document. It was a very influential document for the founding

fathers as they created the US Constitution.

Mayflower Compact

Virginia House of Burgesses Jamestown was essentially a failure. Fearful of losing their investment, the Virginia

Company of London made some changes to get more people to move to Jamestown.

They began by ending the company monopoly on land and began to give land to the colonists.

Company officials also adopting English common law as the basis of their system, which replaced the whims of the governor as the final voice on legal matters.

In July 1619, a meeting of the House of Burgesses was held in Jamestown, the first such assembly in the Americas.

House of Burgesses

Great Indian Law of Peace League of Nations (Great Indian) Law

Each of the five great Iroquois Nations banded together to form the League of Nations. 

Central GovernmentWritten Constitution. CouncilDebates. VotesUnanimous Decisions

To better analyze the similarities and differences between the Great Law of Peace and the U.S. Constitution, a project began in 1980 to organize the two documents in two columns showing the parallel passages side by side.

The comparison clearly illustrated similarities and differences in the two founding documents.

In 1987, the evidence was submitted as testimony before U.S. Senate hearings on the origins of the Constitution.

For the first time in history, Congress officially recognized that the U.S. government was "explicitly modeled" after the Iroquois Confederacy

United States Constitution