Shay’s rebellion came about after the heavy taxes imposed on farmers and war veterans to pay for the Revolutionary war. The high taxes sparked a rebellion from farmers in eastern Massachusetts but more importantly brought to light the vulnerabilities of the Articles of the Confederation. Under the Articles, the government had little control over states and imposition of taxes and therefor struggled to pay the war debt.

Virginia, first discovered in the middle of the sixteenth century, is the only location Columbus never landed on. An easy way to deduce the correct answer is simple geography. Columbus only visited the Caribbean Islands, and never touched mainland North America. With this in mind, it can be easy to figure out the correct answer by identifying the one non-Caribbean locale, Virginia.

The Judiciary Act of 1789 was designed to codify into law the sections of the United States Constitution that called for a supreme Judicial Branch. The principle of Judicial Review was not established until 1803, in the landmark Marbury vs. Madison case.

The idea of popular sovereignty was extremely important to the fledgling United States. Fearing a return to a monarchic system, the Founding Fathers sought to have the only legitimate source of government power directly derived from the people. The Chief Executive was to be elected by a gathering of electors, who were in turn elected by the people.

Very soon after its inception it became clear to many American politicians that the Articles of Confederation was too weak to serve as an effective guiding document for any efficient government. Amongst other weaknesses, it heavily de-centralized Federal power and placed it largely in the hands of states; it offered no mandates to enforce treaties; there was no chief executive who could serve as a proper head of state; it required nine of thirteen states to ratify any laws and states usually voted in blocks of smaller/larger and northern/southern leading to constant stalemate; no power to regulate commerce between states leading to constant economic chaos and confusion. By 1786 it had become clear that the Articles needed to be reformed, although the Representatives had yet to decide to abandon it all together, as they would a few years later.

The Second Continental Congress established itself as the primary governing body during the Revolutionary War and began to make all the necessary steps in order that the country should be able to effectively wage war. The Olive Branch petition was roundly refuted by the British, and indeed most Representatives believed it to be little more than a piece of propaganda. Much more important were the dispatches to other European nations requesting economic or even military assistance. One consequence of this was France entering the war on the side of the colonists. The Congress also ratified the Declaration of Independence, but did not ratify the Constitution (that would not happen until 1789). Instead, they proposed an Articles of Confederation, which would serve as the governing document between 1781-1789, the years immediately following war.

Following the culmination of the French-Indian War, also called the Seven-Years War, the French ceded control of all remaining North American continental territory. The Hudson Bay, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland had already been ceded to the British following conflicts earlier in the Century. The French loss control of lands west of the Mississippi to the Spanish as payment for acquired debts and would not gain control of these lands until the conquests of Napoleon.

The Treaty of Paris, which ended the French-Indian Wars, gave the British government control over massive swathes of land in Mid-West America. In an attempt to placate displaced and hostile Native Americans, the British government issued the Proclamation Act of 1763 which forbade any settlement of territory west of the Appalachians.

The Northwest Territory was one of the first territories settled by the United States after independence and posed issues related to how new States would join the Union. With the Northwest Ordinance, Congress created official measures for a territory to gain statehood. The states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin were all created out of the Northwest Territory.

The Incident on King Street is known in America as the Boston Massacre.

The colonies were indeed upset by the mercantilist policies of England, which forbade the colonists from trading with anyone but England, and forbade them from crossing the Appalachian Mountains. Bacon then led an uprising in 1676 in Jamestown, Virginia, during which he accusing the English governor of treason and killed many British and Native Americans. He was not, however, successful. Instead, Bacon died from typhus that was brought on by body lice!

John Adams said this. As one of the founding fathers, he was instrumental in writing the Declaration of Independence with Thomas Jefferson. He was the second President of the United States, and appointed John Marshall as chief justice. In doing so, he pushed to elevate the judicial branch to a point of equality with the legislative and executive branches.

He also wrote Thoughts on Government, which laid out legislatures with upper and lower houses and became the basis of many state constitutions.

Legally it only required that nine of the thirteen states ratify the Constitution before it went into effect as the supreme governing document of the United States. The first state to ratify was Delaware and the ninth was New Hampshire. Although it is worth noting that most politicians agreed that all thirteen states had to ratify the Constitution before it could be considered infallible, and the Union could be considered properly established, debate in Virginia and New York raged heatedly, with both states ratifying soon after New Hampshire. Only North Carolina and Rhode Island took significantly longer—North Carolina joining in November of 1789, and Rhode Island in May, 1790.

John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison promoted the ratification of the U.S. Constitution through their series of essays called The Federalist Papers.

Patrick Henry is credited with having delivered these words to the Virginia Convention in his successful effort to commit Virginia troops to the Revolutionary War effort.

The Great Compromise of 1787 resulted in the formation of two houses of Congress (The House of Representatives and the Senate): one based on population, the other giving equal representation to all states.

Rhode Island and Connecticut were the only two self-governing colonies. They were both founded by dissenters from the Massachusetts Bay colony and directly elected the governor and representatives to the upper and lower houses. Maryland, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and New York were all governed by a proprietor.

The Treaty of Fontainebleau was a secret agreement made between Spain and France towards the end of the French-Indian Wars. Realizing that they were likely to lose the Seven Years’ War with Great Britain, the French government desired that the territory of Louisiana should fall into the hands of the Spanish before Great Britain could get a hold of it. The stated reason at the time was to ensure that the citizens living there would remain under Catholicism; however, most historians believe the geopolitical situation with Britain was of greater significance. The Treaty of Paris (1763) ended the French-Indian Wars and gave Britain control of the Eastern portion of the Louisiana territory and ensured that Spain would control the Western portion and the major port city of New Orleans.

James Madison, the fourth President of the United States, is considered the "Father of the Constitution" for his role in drafting it and the Bill of Rights.