How Is Colonial Government Similar To Today

Both colonies changed political systems and powers throughout their lifetimes- sometimes the change was necessary, other times it was for the benefit of those in power,

A1: Though the three English colonial regions—the Chesapeake area, New England, and Pennsylvania—were all relatively close to each other, there were stark differences between them. To begin with, they all had very different government structures. In the Chesapeake area, the government closely resembled that of England where power resided in one individual. In England there was a king while in Maryland, there was a royal governor. In both cases, the ruling individual had control over all branches of the government; however, the successor of the first governor in Maryland soon realized that colonists would not enjoy fewer liberties in the colonies than at home. Hence, Cecilius Calvert gave up their rights to initiate all colonial laws and shifted power to the people by governing by their advice and with consent. On the other hand, in New England, government was theocratic in nature where church and state were synonymous and where power resided in the leaders of the church. In addition, the Pennsylvanians had a much more democratic government structure where there was a proprietor and a legislative assembly that gave the people the right to appoint government officials—one of many rights that

• Began with a General Court, then to a colonial legislature, consisting of a governor and a two-house legislature. Property owning, adult male, church members were the only ones who could vote.

Both the Colonial Assemblies and their royal governors enjoyed having power, this caused many conflicts between the colonists and governors. The main reasons of conflict between the two was taxation and rules or regulations. While the colonial assemblies could pass their own laws, they needed to be approved by the governor and the King. This angered the colonists because they wanted to feel like they had power. When the royal governors began creating restrictions on Colonial trade and making other decisions that suggested Colonists did not have the power that they wanted; as a result, the Colonists began to take matters into their own hands and question their royal governor’s authority over them.

Prior to the revolution, the American Colonies consisted of several self-governing structures. The first “miniature parliament” was the House of Burgesses, which was the first assembly of settlers that formed a legislative. It could create laws and levy taxes, but ultimately was not centralized to all the colonies. After the revolution, Congress established the Articles of Confederation. According to the US Department of State, “the Articles of Confederation served as the written document that established the functions of the national government of the United States.

England and Spain had very different views on how to rule their colonies. England was not very involved in their colonies, and seemed to let them do whatever they wanted. This led to many of the colonies having small assemblies that held town meetings, and often made supervised the making of laws. These practices differ almost completely from the ones of the Spanish. In most of Spain's colonies the King had appointed viceroys to oversee, and basically rule them. In Spain’s Colonies their monarch held complete control of them, whereas in New England they were mostly self-sufficient. All the small governments in the colonies marked the start of democracy, while in Spain they were still practicing the same ways of the Old World.

Representation became a key issue within the colonies. Colonists were unhappy how they were being represented within the British rule. This is where the “taxation without representation” comes into play. In 1766 Britain passed the Declaratory Act that said that parliament had the authority to pass laws for the colonists. This is an example of a “virtual” governing where lawmakers in England made

While the colonists modeled the structure of their legislation after the British House of Commons, salutary neglect also provided colonists the opportunity to develop their own local assemblies from individuals within their respective communities. In this regard, the lack of British involvement in the colonies allowed the legislative assemblies to develop in a way that was better catered to the needs in the colonies, developing a group of people who became accustomed to having their opinions heard by the government.

There were three important English ideas about government that greatly influenced the American colonists and the American government, these three influences were, the Magna Carta, the Parliament, and the English Bill of Rights. The year 1215 A.D was when the english nobles forced King John to sign the Magna Carta and by signing this document, it limited the king’s power and guaranteed the rights of the nobles. A council of nobles was created to advise the king, later this council was known as the Parliament, a group of people who have the power to make laws. Just like the American government today the English Parliament was made up of two houses.The English Parliament created a list of guaranteed freedoms that the government promised to protect,

In contrast to Britain, the colonists believed in direct representation which is representation in government by having someone from a certain region represent that area. British government or Parliament believed in virtual representation

     Building on English foundations of political liberty, the colonists extended the concepts of liberty and self-government far beyond those envisioned in the mother country. While Englishmen had some representation in their parliament, Americans took the system further. All colonies had some form of a two-house parliament system. Some, like New York, had governors appointed by the crown. Others, like Rhode Island, elected their own. Local government also varied between the colonies. The southern states had a strong County government, while the New England colonies relied on town-meeting government. In either case, voting was reserved to land-owning white men.

As you can see the Massachusetts Bay Colony was very diverse in its form of government and how the colony was run. Some people say it consists of a mix of all of these forms of governments (theocracy, democracy, oligarchy, and authoritarian) when in fact the government was one of a kind and very influential to other colonies. It helped other colonies because it helped them decided to take bits and pieces of

Toward the beginning of the film, the system of government that is used is Unitary. A unitary state is a state governed as one single unit in which the central government is supreme and any administrative divisions(subnational units) exercise only powers that their central government chooses to delegate. They were a unitary system in the film because of how General Mandible was supreme to any other positions such as the queen. The queen (Monarchy) is mostly in the movie just for the show because she rarely gets to make any choices. General Mandible decided to flood the whole colony without the queen knowing, and a lot of the soldiers followed him. Toward the end of the movie the type of government that shows that is flourishing is a federal system. A federal system is both a political and philosophical concept that describes how power is given

In being colonies of England, a country whose government is partially representative and partially monarchic, the American colonists struggled to create democratic societies because they were forced to accept the British laws and duties passed by the British government, however, they did succeed. Though at first, while the colonists were struggling to establish themselves in the colonies, they welcomed the support of their motherland. As time pass went on, however, the colonists were divided in opinions. Some colonists became loyalists, many felt patriotic to their colony and some remained undecidedly neutral. When the colonies realized how interconnected and alike they were, they decided to call for intercolonial congresses. Through these intercolonial assemblies whichever colonies chose to be represented were able to be. Therefore, the colonists in colonial America were governed by a government for and by

The United States government was crafted during the Colonial period, and to this day is still in use. Although today’s society differs immensely from the Colonial period we still have a lot of similarities. We share the same values, practice the same government, and have the system of checks and balances.