government summary
Learn about the responsibilities and powers of government
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Mayflower Compact Summary
Mayflower Compact, document signed on the English ship Mayflower on November 21 [November 11, Old Style], 1620, prior to its landing at Plymouth, Massachusetts. It was the first framework of government written and enacted in the territory that is now the United States of America. Rough seas and
assize Summary
Assize, in law, a session, or sitting, of a court of justice. It originally signified the method of trial by jury. During the Middle Ages the term was applied to certain court sessions held in the counties of England; it was also applied in France to special sessions of the Parlement of Paris (the
Affair of the Diamond Necklace Summary
Affair of the Diamond Necklace, scandal at the court of Louis XVI in 1785 that discredited the French monarchy on the eve of the French Revolution. It began as an intrigue on the part of an adventuress, the comtesse (countess) de La Motte, to procure, supposedly for Queen Marie-Antoinette but in
Northwest Ordinances Summary
Northwest Ordinances, several ordinances enacted by the U.S. Congress for the purpose of establishing orderly and equitable procedures for the settlement and political incorporation of the Northwest Territory—i.e., that part of the American frontier lying west of Pennsylvania, north of the Ohio