AP Social Studies

• Magna Carta 1215 AD:

  • Grants customs and liberties to be observed by all in the realm
  • Participants: clergy, laity, archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, barons, knights, fee holders
  • Confirms that the charter is to be observed in perpetuity
• John Locke's Second Treatise on Government 1689 AD:

  • Describes a state of liberty with a law of nature governing it
  • States that no one should harm another in life, health, liberty, or possessions
  • Emphasizes the preservation of mankind and the duty to do justice on an offender
• Declaration of Independence 1776 AD:

  • Asserts that all men are created equal with unalienable Rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness
  • States that Governments derive their powers from the consent of the governed
  • Declares the right of the People to alter or abolish a Government that becomes destructive of these ends
• Terms to Know:

  • Charter: a document granting rights or privileges
  • Natural rights: rights that are inherent to human beings
  • Infringe: to violate or trespass on
  • Enlightenment: a period of intellectual and philosophical growth in Europe
  • Rationalism: belief in reason and logic as the primary source of knowledge
  • Popular sovereignty: the principle that the authority of a state and its government are created and sustained by the consent of its people
• The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement that emphasized reason over tradition and superstition.