Adam Anzualda Pol-120-01 3/10/2011

I honestly believe that there are actually two civilizations that have had equal influence on the American government in similar but different ways. The first is surprisingly the British government. You see the British government and the flaws within its system were a great influence because they showed the founding fathers all the things not to do. Many of the wrongs that forced us to break away from Great Britain were still fresh in the minds of Americans everywhere and so it helped in forming our laws, and rights. And of course the other civilization that had the greatest influence over America is the Romans. The Roman society was essentially the worlds first democracy so of course it had a great influence. We seem to have borrowed much from the Roman system of government, for example the senate system which we still use today. Also the idea of having one central figure with a lot of the decision making power in the country, much like the Roman emperor. There have been several documents over the early periods of Americas foundings and developments. But despite all of these perhaps the most important pre American document that had an effect on us politically was the Magna Carta. Magna Carta was an English document originally issued in the early 1200s. Its purpose was essentially to omit certain provisions of the king as well as blatantly and directly challenging his authority. Why is the Magna Carta so important to us you say though? Well there are several reasons. The first is its one of the first times in history that the common man stood up to the higher power and attempted to change things. It proved that the king was not all powerful and that his choices could be overthrown by the layman. Finally it put forth the idea that perhaps the common man might not be that inferior to the king or anyone in a political power. The Magna Carta set forth a unique precedent that would prove to shape the events to come. Shays rebellion helped to shape our government greatly due to the fact that it essentially caused us to form our current government. Because Daniel Shay fought back against Massachusetts and there laws, the people realized that there was a flaw within our current system. At the time of Shays rebellion America was using the Articles of Confederation, which was essentially a document that banded the states under an idea of friendship. Of course as Shay proved this band of friendship would not withstand conflict on an internal level let alone something more drastic. Shays rebellion caused our founding fathers to take another look at the articles of confederation and they realized something would have to be done to ensure such an event could not happen again. Because of this the Constitution as well and the Bill of Rights were drafted. As an additional result the three branch system of government was created. Shays rebellion caused the government to be rewritten into what it is today and shaped it to ensure that his rebellion could never happen again, or at least not as effectively.

Adam Anzualda Pol-120-01 3/10/2011

The Constitution was created to replace the flawed document of government, the Articles of Confederation. How it was created was fairly simple, due to a man named Daniel Shay who started a rebellion in Massachusetts against the current government due to unfair taxation. Because of his rebellion the founding fathers came together and created the Constitution. The Constitution has several purposes. Firstly it explicitly lays out the rights of all citizens of The United States of America. Citizens of America wanted to know they had rights under the new government and that those rights would be protected. A second reason the Constitution was created was to unite the states under a strong federal government. The founding fathers wanted a strong federal government that could respond to threats both internal and external. This way with a federal army, the states would not have to rely solely on the own militias. Finally the Constitution would lay out federal laws and practices that the nation would adhere to. Today it is largely used in the same way. It helps to set overall guidelines that must be followed and ensure the rights set forth long ago.