Notes

~Civics~ *The Origins of American Government*
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~Government- is one or more people who exercise control over a society.
~A society- is a group of people who live and work in a particular area, such as a state or nation.
~Agricultural revolution- About 7,000 years ago, people in the Middle East and Africa began systematic farming.
~ Before the agricultural revolution, people were always in danger of running out of food if a crop failed or if game was
scarce.
~With organized farming, however, came the need for organized government. In fact, most historians agree that the
agricultural revolution brought about organized governments and civilizations.
~Surplus- An extra amount
~A social class- is a group of people with similar positions in society.
~Artisans- are people who make things that people need, like pots, weapons, and bricks for building.
~Democracy- is government that draws its power from the people.
~democracy comes from Greek. The first part of the word, demos, means “the people.”
**Only male citizens who owned property could gather to make public policy and pass laws. Slaves, women, and children
weren’t considered citizens.
~In the Roman Republic, citizens chose representatives to a national Senate to vote for laws for Rome. The republic didn’t last,
though. It eventually became an empire, ruled by military rulers called Caesars, for Julius Caesar. The Roman Empire in the
western part of Europe ended around 476 A.D. In the eastern part of Europe, it lasted until about 1100 A.D.
~The Republic- claimed that democracy allowed people to follow all their passions and drives without order or control.
~ A state or nation is called Sovereign- if it has the power to govern itself fully, by such things as making laws, imposing taxes,
forming treaties, and engaging in commerce with other nations.
~An authoritarian government- rules without the consent of the people.
**There are three basic kinds of authoritarian governments:
1. Absolute monarchies
2. Dictatorships
3. Totalitarian states
~Absolute monarchies- are governments ruled by emperors, kings, or queens who have absolute power.

^^Louis XIV held absolute power as king of France. He called himself le Roi Soliel (the Sun King). He used that name to show the
French people that he was the center and the source of power in France. Louis XIV also said, “L’état, c’est moi,” which means
“I am the state.” Statements such as these illustrate the power these monarchs held during that period of history.

~Constitutional monarchy- In such a government, the powers of the ruler are limited to those granted under the constitution
and laws of the nation.
^^Some nations with this type of government have a written constitution (for example, Denmark and Norway); others, like
Great Britain, have an unwritten constitution.
~Dictatorships- take different forms. There are pure dictatorships in which one person holds all power.
**Sometimes, dictatorships exist as small groups called oligarchies
^^it will often be ruled by a group of military officers called a junta
~Junta- is a Spanish word that means to join. A junta is a form of ruling oligarchy.
~A regime- is a system of government, but the term is often used to refer to a dictatorial or totalitarian government.
~ A totalitarian state- is one in which the leader has total control of the government and the people.
^^Hitler was also a dictator who held absolute power. He called himself the führer (leader) of the Nazi party, and his regime was
called the Third Reich.
~Gulags- In the Soviet Union, slave labor camps
**The wholesale murder of entire populations is called genocide.
**The genocide that occurred in Hitler’s Germany is called the Holocaust.
^^The state most involved in this activity was Serbia, which called the genocide ethnic cleansing.

##Propaganda is the spreading of information, false or true, with the purpose of convincing people of something.
~Both Hitler and Stalin used propaganda to persuade people that they ruled in the name of the nation and the people.

**Stalin’s propaganda proclaimed a philosophy called communism. People were taught that communism was the perfect
government of the future

##In a direct democracy- any citizen can participate directly in the decision making of government.
##In a representative democracy- the people participate in the decision making through an elected
representative**representative democracy is called a legislature.
~A legislature- is a group of people who propose, debate, and pass laws. A legislature in a democratic nation is intended to
represent the wishes and needs of the people.

~Women couldn’t vote until 1920, when women’s suffrage (the right to vote) was granted by the Nineteenth Amendment to the
Constitution.

~All governments have three basic purposes:
1. To decide how food and other resources are to be distributed
2. To settle disputes among people in an effort to maintain order
3. To organize the work of the people to meet common goals
~Distributing resources in our society requires many laws and regulations—laws for printing and distributing money to banks, laws and regulations for all the kinds of businesses and occupations, and so on.
~The pharaoh (supreme ruler) appointed ministers to take a portion of the farmers’ harvests.
~The common defense- One of the main goals of government is to provide for the common defense. This means that the government is responsible for protecting and defending the people who live within the area controlled by that government.

~Jamestown- The first settlers in the land we now call the United States came from England to establish a colony at
Jamestown. That was in 1607.
~Plymouth. In 1620, Puritans arrived at Plymouth.
~The New World- was the term used for the land on which the new colonies were settled.

~Tolerance- in relation to religions means respecting the faiths of others. Intolerance is just the
opposite. It refers to the practice
of condemning the religious practices of others.
~Intolerance- The practice of condemning the religious practices or beliefs of others
~indentured servants, or immigrants- who paid for their passage into North America by working for an employer for a set
number of years.

~In America, they became known as the Scotch-Irish. All of these highland people can be called border landers, because they
settled the borderlands of the earlier colonies.

~The Magna Carta- is a significant document in the evolution of civil rights and is considered to be the first document of human
freedom.
^^The words Magna Carta are Latin for “Great Charter.”
In time, the following items were added to these principles of the Magna Carta:
1. Offenders must be charged with a specific crime and brought before a magistrate or judge.
2. Those charged with a crime must be considered innocent until proven guilty.
3. Accused persons had the right to confront their accusers and know what offense they were charged with.

~Middle Ages- was based on who owned land. Land was power.
~Edward increased the size of this council and called it a ~Parliament~
~A bill of rights- is a statement of the rights and liberties of a group of people.
~Westminster Model- an outline for parliamentary government that has been adopted by many nations.
~Raw materials- are goods used in the production or manufacture of products. For example, cotton is a raw material for the
production of cloth.
~Cultural diversity- means that a region is populated by people from different places who have different customs.

~There were three kinds of British colonies:
1. Royal colonies
2. Proprietary colonies
3. Corporate colonies
~Royal colonies were run by a governor appointed by the king.
~Proprietary colonies were managed by the people who owned
them.
~Corporate colonies were expected to set up their own governments and run their own affairs.

~The Puritans who founded the Plymouth Colony called themselves Pilgrims. Pilgrims are people who take a sacred journey.
~In 1632, Maryland was established as a proprietary colony.
~Like Virginia, Maryland was a tobacco-growing colony.

~The French and Indian War in America was only one part of a world war. In Europe, it was called the ~Seven Years War~
~They passed the Stamp Act of 1765- This act required all legal documents and even playing cards and newspapers to have a tax stamp on them.
~To repeal- means to end or remove a law.
~The Boston Massacre (known in Great Britain as the Incident on King Street) was a confrontation in Boston on March 5, 1770,
in which a group of nine British soldiers shot five people of a crowd of three or four hundred who were abusing them verbally
and throwing various missiles.
~A boycott- is a protest against a group or nation in Which people refuse to buy goods from that group or nation.
~Intolerable Acts~ The following are some of the provisions of these acts:
1. The port of Boston was closed.
2. The power that had been partially restored to the colonial assemblies was cut off.
3. British troops were to be quartered (housed) in private homes.
~Treason- is an act of disloyalty to one’s country.
~Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776.
~Articles of Confederation- The plan adopted by the Second Continental Congress
~To ratify- means to approve by a vote.
~Loyalists- were colonists who remained faithful to the king of England. Many fought for the British
during the American Revolution.
~The Americans defeated German mercenary troops, called ~Hessians~ , at Trenton.
~A mercenary is a soldier paid to fight for another country.
~The Hessians were Germans hired by the British to fight against the American patriots.
~Old country- Europe and England
~Baron- Nobles; were taxed by King John before the Magna Carta
~Confirmation of Charters-A document stating that taxes could be levied only by approval of
Parliament.
~House of Commons- Elects the prime minister and acts as the legislative body that debates and
passes laws
~John Winthrop- Chosen by the Massachusetts Bay Company to be colonial governor; created a colonial legislature
~First Continental Congress- The 1774 meeting in Philadelphia of delegates from every colony except Georgia; dealt with problems with Great Britain, including taxation
~George Washington-First commander of Continental Army
~Strong Central Government-Proposed by John Dickinson; giving power to levy taxes and control the western lands, with all states equally represented in the government