An overthrow and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed.

The act or process of establishing a colony or colonies; the spreading of a species into a new habitat.

A war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic; The American Civil War (1861–1865) was a civil war fought over the secession of the Confederate States.

Proclamation by Britain at the end of the French and Indian War that prohibited settlement by whites on Indian territory.

A law passed in the British Parliament in 1765 introducing a tax on legal documents, commercial contracts, licenses, publications, and playing cards in the North American colonies.

War fought between Great Britain and its two enemies, the French and the Indians of North America. Most of the battles were in Canada. American colonists, including George Washington, fought with the British in this war, which lasted from 1754 to 1763. The British won the war and won the right to keep Canada and several other possessions in the New World.

Also known as the Coercive Acts; a series of British measures passed in 1774 and designed to punish the Massachusetts colonists for the Boston Tea Party.

The basic law of the Connecticut colony from 1639 to 1662, formally adopted (Jan. 14, 1639) by representatives from the towns of Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor, meeting at Hartford.

A framework of laws and principles that establish the function, nature, offices, powers, and limits of a government. The Constitution of the United States is the framework for the national government of the U.S.

A statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire.

Excessive concern for the interests of one group or area to the detriment of the whole.

An agreement reached by the Pilgrims on the ship the Mayflower in 1620, just before they landed at Plymouth Rock. The Mayflower Compact bound them to live in a civil society according to their own laws.