1D Self-Government

First official legislative body in the colonies; could make laws, set taxes, and respond to colonial affairs; laid the groundwork that the people should have a say in their government through elected representatives

• Massachusetts Bay Colony Assembly
• Pennsylvania General Assembly
• New York Provincial Congress
• Virginia House of Burgesses

Historical document that set up a framework for governing the new settlement by establishing a civil body politic and a system of self-government based on the consent of the governed.

• Mayflower Compact
• Bill of Rights
• Columbian Compact

• Articles of Confederation

Legislative bodies established in the American colonies that served as a check on the power of the colonial governors; played a crucial role in the development of self-government in the colonies.

• Colonial assemblies
• Town meetings
• Royal governors
• Colonial councils

Series of mercantile laws passed by the British in the 17th and 18th centuries aimed at regulating trade from the colonies in a way that would most benefit England. Contributed to growing tensions between the Royal Crown and the Colonies.

• Mercantile Policies
• Navigation Acts
• Colonial Regulations
• Trade Acts

Lenient enforcement of the Navigation Acts by the British, which allowed the American colonies to develop their own economies and trade relations, as well as more control over local governance.

• Navigation Passages

• Lenient Acts

• Albany Plan

• Salutary Neglect

Americas first "mass movement" in the 1730s and 1740s in response to religious decline. Firey and emotional religious gatherings eventually increased church membership.

• The Great Awakening
• The Enlightenment

• The Mayflower Movement

• Puritan Pilgrimage

European intellectual movement from the 17th and 18th centuries that served as the basis for the eventual colonial push for Independence; emphasized the use of reason, science, and empirical evidence to understand and improve the human condition, society, and government

• The Great Awakening

• Enlightenment
• House of Burgesses

• Renaissance