Along with the ancient Greeks, the ancient Romans made several contributions to modern government, law, and politics. During the first period of ancient Roman history, the civilization was ruled by a monarchy, which was eventually overthrown around BCE.
Imperial Rome established three major branches of rule: the central government, the military, and provincial government.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, Italy had many wars and was ruled by monarchs and a fascist regime before becoming a modern republic. The government of ancient Greece , particularly from the Classical period c. As everyone already knows, the Greeks were responsible for establishing democracy, which is a form of government used by much of the world today.
Before democracy was developed in Classical Athens, ancient Greece was divided into city-states. By the Archaic Period c. As politics began to dominate life in Greece, many cities ended up begin ruled by a tyrant different from the modern version who would govern according to their own will. Eventually, democracy gained in popularity and nearly every city-state established their own democracies.
China continued under Imperial rule until the end of the Qing dynasty in The ancient Egyptians have the most well-known and thoroughly documented government out of all the first civilizations. Through the records that the ancient Egyptians kept we know that every aspect of Egyptian life was organized and ruled over the different levels of government.
After the pharaoh was the king, who was the military commander, and then there was vizier who had the most duties.
The country was further divided into nomes, which were ruled at the regional level by a nomarch. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited. Tyson Brown, National Geographic Society. National Geographic Society. For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service.
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If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media. Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service. Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. You cannot download interactives. A government is a system of order for a nation, state, or another political unit.
A government is responsible for creating and enforcing the rules of a society, defense, foreign affairs, the economy, and public services. While the responsibilities of all governments are similar, those duties are executed in different ways depending on the form of government. Some of the different types of government include a direct democracy, a representative democracy, socialism, communism, a monarchy, an oligarchy, and an autocracy.
Help your students understand the different forms of government with these classroom resources. The Rule of Law is a principle established in ancient Greece that holds all people and organizations accountable to the same set of laws.
It has had a profound effect on civilizations across the world. United States immigration law has developed extensively, often free of judicial review. The United States has a complex government system. One important tenet of this system is democracy, in which the ultimate power rests with the people.
The specific powers and responsibilities of each branch were also laid out. Among the more contentious issues was the question of state representation in the national legislature. Delegates from larger states wanted population to determine how many representatives a state could send to Congress, while small states called for equal representation.
The issue was resolved by the Connecticut Compromise, which proposed a bicameral legislature with proportional representation of the states in the lower house House of Representatives and equal representation in the upper house Senate. Another controversial topic was slavery. For the purposes of taxation and determining how many representatives a state could send to Congress, it was decided that enslaved people would be counted as three-fifths of a person. On September 17, George Washington was the first to sign the document.
Of the 55 delegates, a total of 39 signed; some had already left Philadelphia, and three—George Mason and Edmund Randolph of Virginia , and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts—refused to approve the document. In order for the Constitution to become law, it then had to be ratified by nine of the 13 states.
James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, with assistance from John Jay, wrote a series of essays to persuade people to ratify the Constitution. People who supported the Constitution became known as Federalists, while those opposed it because they thought it gave too much power to the national government were called Anti-Federalists. Beginning on December 7, , five states— Delaware , Pennsylvania, New Jersey , Georgia and Connecticut—ratified the Constitution in quick succession.
However, other states, especially Massachusetts, opposed the document, as it failed to reserve un-delegated powers to the states and lacked constitutional protection of basic political rights, such as freedom of speech, religion and the press. In February , a compromise was reached under which Massachusetts and other states would agree to ratify the document with the assurance that amendments would be immediately proposed.
The Constitution was thus narrowly ratified in Massachusetts, followed by Maryland and South Carolina.
On June 21, , New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the document, and it was subsequently agreed that government under the U. Constitution would begin on March 4, On February 2, , the U. Supreme Court held its first session, marking the date when the government was fully operative. Rhode Island, the last holdout of the original 13 states, finally ratified the Constitution on May 29, In , Madison, then a member of the newly established U.
House of Representatives , introduced 19 amendments to the Constitution. On September 25, , Congress adopted 12 of the amendments and sent them to the states for ratification. Ten of these amendments, known collectively as the Bill of Rights , were ratified and became part of the Constitution on December 10, The Bill of Rights guarantees individuals certain basic protections as citizens, including freedom of speech, religion and the press; the right to bear and keep arms; the right to peaceably assemble; protection from unreasonable search and seizure; and the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury.
To date, there have been thousands of proposed amendments to the Constitution. The most recent amendment to the Constitution, Article XXVII, which deals with congressional pay raises, was proposed in and ratified in Through all the changes, the Constitution has endured and adapted.
Constitution Day is observed on September 17, to commemorate the date the document was signed. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!
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