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Baron de Montesquieu, a early French philosophe, rejected absolutism in favor of Britain's limited monarchy. He admired the British in that they protected themselves from tyranny by dividing themselves into three branches. He felt that separation of powers and checks and

In his Second Treatise on Government Locke focus’ on liberalism & capitalism, defending the claim that men are by nature free and equal against the idea that God had made all people subject to a king. He argued that people have ‘natural rights’, such as the right to life, liberty, and property, that hold the foundation for the major laws of a society. He says, “…we must consider, what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons as they think fit.” (2nd Treatise, Chapter 2, sec 4). John Locke used this claim, that all men were naturally free and equal, for understanding the idea of a government as a result of a social contract. This is where people in the state of nature transfer some of their rights to the government in order to better guarantee the steady and comfortable enjoyment of their lives, liberty, and property.

Rousseau disagreed with the idea of natural rights being something you’re born with and believed that there are no rights by nature. In addition, he thought that the classical liberals were wrong to start from the individual because by nature humans are social creatures and there is nothing that is ours, and ours alone. Everything we are has been influenced by other human beings so there is literally nothing that we can call our own. Rousseau believed that human beings are dependant on one another for everything we have. Rousseau also believed that the right of war or conquest doesn’t exist because you can’t talk about rights when there is no choice. He also rejects Aristotle’s idea of slaves by nature. Aristotle believed people were unable to control or govern their passion with their reason which is why they needed to be ruled over. Aristotle said that, “Men are not naturally equal, but that some are born for slavery and others for dominion.” Rousseau countered with, “Aristotle was right; but he mistook the effect for the cause. Nothing is more certain than that all men who are born in slavery are born for slavery. Slaves become so debased by their chains as to lose even the

The British had the idea of mercantilism where a the economys wealth was judged by how much gold and silver it had, the colonies supplied the mother land with materials and then the mother country produced products to sell back to the colonies

     The year was sixteen hundred and eighty-nine and a man by the name of John Locke wrote Second Treatise on Government (Zinn 73). In it, Locke wrote that in a natural state everyone, all people, are born free and equal, and possess certain rights. He said that these “natural rights” were life, liberty, and property. He also said that the evildoers who conspired to deprive others of their life, liberty, or property ruined the good life of the state of nature (Locke). The only way to protect these rights is by joining together to form governments. The power of government, then, stems from the consent of the governed, which entrust the government with responsibility for protecting

England 's introduction of the intolerable acts upon American colonists created a ripple effect which they did not anticipate, which completely changed the views of many colonists. These colonists went on to become the voices that fueled the American Revolutionary War and spread the messages of liberty, freedom, and a new way of life. Some voices stood out more so than the rest, their names became etched in our history books their thoughts and beliefs paving the way for the Revolution. One such colonist is James Otis wrote a series of patriotic pamphlets outlining his views on the colonies state of affairs , one of those pamphlets is The Rights of British Colonies Asserted and Proved written in 1763. In The Rights of British Colonies Asserted and Proved James Otis outlines his perspectives on government 's rights and the rights of the people , these perspectives revolutionized colonial opinions and made famous the quote” no taxation without representation.”

Mercantilism is an economic theory where a nation's strength comes from building up gold supplies and expanding its trade. Britain formed the American colonies so that they could increase their gold stores. They wanted raw supplies to make into products to sell and make money. They wanted America to pay taxes so that Britain could make money. America used the theory in that they thought they ought to, in order to be strong expand their trade beyond Britain. Countries like Belgium, and France wanted to also increase their trade, and expand it to trading with America. They also wanted to increase their gold stores by trading with America. Britain however did not want America to trade with France and Belgium and the Netherlands because they

All 13 of the colonies started out self-governed, which meant that it was up to the people of each colony to decide how they wanted their colony led and by whom. Most colonies chose to still kneel before the crown and be royal colonies, and, while Virginia still was loyal to their king, they wanted to make decisions about their colony by themselves. The House of Burgesses was founded in 1634 and was made up of representatives elected by the people of Virginia. Each Virginian county was allowed to select two burgesses (representatives) to voice their county’s opinion. Similar to the House of Burgesses, the United States’ government allows all of the 50 states to select a number of representatives, depending on the state’s size, to send to the House of Representatives. The House of Burgesses also played a very important role in shaping people. It was, “the training ground of many of America’s Founding Fathers, including George Washington, Richard Henry Lee, and Patrick Henry” (Gottlieb, 1). If it hadn’t been for the House of Burgesses, these great men might not have lived up to who many Americans know them as today. Virginia’s establishment of representative self-government shows that hey were the first to give their common folk a voice rather than just bowing before the king. [5],

This was encouraged by the fact that the British government had left them to govern themselves with little oversight or interference, referred to as salutary or benign neglect. The British government had passed what were named Navigation Acts which required the sale of raw materials by the colonies to Britain only. This is referred to as Mercantilism. Mercantilism is the idea that you should only trade with certain countries; an economic system used by colonial power to exploit the colonies for the benefit of the host country. This benefited Britain.

For centuries, the citizens of many European nations were under the firm ruling of a monarch, where any kind of individualism was nearly impossible to acquire. Looking for an escape from the corrupt tyrannies, seeking religious freedom and economic gains, immigrants from different nations fled to the New World to seize the upcoming opportunities of a new life. Once a profuse amount of settlers had arrived and with adequate time, leaders within various colonies created several documents and early attempts of autonomous government, such as the Virginia House of Burgesses (1619), the Mayflower Compact (1620), and the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639). Also, two large events; the Enlightenment, a philosophical movement, and the ruling of

SECTION I, Document I: Document Analysis Document title and unit: Unit I-Mayflower Compact Documents are made in order to provide enhancement in society and when these documents are denied and ignored many difficulties eventually occur. In 1620, the year in which the Mayflower Compact was issued, English people fled England to get away from religious persecution and took the Mayflower ship until they landed in what was later known as America. This group of English people were called, Pilgrims. When the Pilgrims came to America they needed to set a form of government to form a “civil body politic.”

English Parliament had “no separation of powers, the executive and legislative branches being merely different manifestations of the same body”. Whereas in colonial America there was separation among powers.

“The colonies are and of right ought to be free and Independent states.” Richard Henry Lee, expressed the resolution to congress many centuries ago . This brought troubles with Great Britain the colonial “Mother Country”, this also brought rage onto the colonist in the year of 1776. In order to deal with these conflicts peacefully, settlers organized something called the Constitutional Congress. This congress contained selected delegates, such as our founding fathers.

Mercantilism is the belief that a country must export more good than it imports to build its economy. In the case of Britain and the New World colonies, the colonies had to send raw materials directly to England where they would turn those raw goods into manufactured goods and sell them back to the colonists. The Navigation Acts, passed by British parliament, enforced this idea by prohibiting the colonists from trading with anyone other than England such as the Dutch as well as the law that all goods had to be carried on English or colonial ships. However, the king developed a policy of salutary neglect towards the colonies and does not strongly enforce these acts because he wanted their loyalty to be to him rather than the French and therefore

Imperialists suggested that the colonies could be used to the advantage of mother nations due to the fact that they could possibly provide raw resources that are rare or unavailable in Europe’s area of residence. Thus, they started to expand, rapidly making colonies to gain more resources and places of trade, this formed a system called a global economy. Study.com under the video of “The 19th Century World Economy: Major Changes & Their Impact”, defined a global economy as one that integrates trade goods, services, and money. This makes the world more intertwined and the imperialists used this to form their next point that colonies would take in manufactured goods and give off raw resources, benefiting the colony and the mother nation in the