Quiz 2 Colonization Begins (2025)

FAQs

Was the Mayflower Compact the first written attempt at self government in the New World True or false? ›

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.

Sir Walter Raleigh, with the blessing of Queen Elizabeth, sent a reconnaissance expedition to the New World in April, 1584. The expedition, two ships under the command of Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe, arrived on the Outer Banks of present-day North Carolina in July, 1584.

“The Mayflower pilgrims were the most extreme kind of reformers. They called themselves Saints, but were also known as Separatists, for their desire to separate themselves completely from the established church.

The Articles of Confederation (1781-1789) were America's first attempt to govern itself as an independent nation. They united the states as a confederation - a loose league of states represented in a Congress.

William Bradford wrote the first part of Mourt's Relation, including its version of the compact, so he wrote two of the three versions. The wording of those two versions is quite similar, unlike that of Morton. Bradford's handwritten manuscript is kept in a vault at the State Library of Massachusetts.

The Compact explains that the colonists would write and enact “laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices … for the general good of the colony.” The colonists would be bound to those laws, and would additionally pledge to work together to build a single society.

Therefore, the English were not the first to settle in America. The Vikings had a settlement in eastern Canada around the year 1050. The Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Dutch also colonized parts of America before and at the same time as the English.

In the early 1600s, the British king began establishing colonies in America. By the 1700s, most of the settlements had formed into 13 British colonies: Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and South Carolina.

Even before Jamestown or the Plymouth Colony, the oldest permanent European settlement in what is now the United States was founded in September 1565 by a Spanish soldier named Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in St. Augustine, Florida.

These first settlers, initially referred to as the Old Comers and later as the Forefathers, did not become known as the Pilgrim Fathers until two centuries after their arrival.

What denomination were Puritans? ›

The Puritans. Like the Pilgrims, the Puritans were English Protestants who believed that the reforms of the Church of England did not go far enough. In their view, the liturgy was still too Catholic. Bishops lived like princes.

The 102 Mayflower passengers were a diverse group made up of religious separatists (later known as pilgrims) and others referred to by the pilgrims as Strangers (people who did not share their faith).

In the 1600s and 1700s, Europeans came to North America looking for religious freedom, economic opportunities, and political liberty. They created 13 colonies on the East Coast of the continent.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

The first form of government was created in between ca. 3500–2332 BCE. by the Sumerians. They founded the worlds first city and states.

The Mayflower Compact was important because it was the first document to establish self-government in the New World. It remained active until 1691 when Plymouth Colony became part of Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Thus, the Mayflower Compact was an agreement that bound the signers to obey the government and legal system established in Plymouth Colony. The Mayflower Compact remained in effect until Plymouth Colony became part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1691.

Finally, as the first written constitution in the New World, the Mayflower Compact laid the foundations for two other revolutionary documents: the Declaration of Independence, which stated that governments derive their powers “from the consent of the governed,” and the Constitution.

The Mayflower Compact—once called the “Plymouth Combination”—is the first constitution known to have been written in the New World. Drafted aboard the Mayflower before the Pilgrims from Holland and their fellow travelers landed in North America, it was signed on November 11, 1620, by the 41 men on the ship.