Political Science in Credo: Political History

Or Magna Charta [Lat., = great charter], the most famous document of British constitutional history, issued by King John at Runnymede under compulsion from the barons and the church in June 1215. In later centuries the Magna Carta became a symbol of the supremacy of the constitution over the king, as opponents of arbitrary royal power extracted from it various "democratic" interpretations.

Full and formal declaration adopted July 4, 1776, by representatives of the Thirteen Colonies in North America announcing the separation of those colonies from Great Britain and making them into the United States.

Document embodying the fundamental principles upon which the American republic is conducted. Drawn up at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, the Constitution was signed on Sept. 17, 1787, and ratified by the required number of states (nine) by June 21, 1788.

First 10 amendments to the Constitution of the United States, adopted as a group in 1791.

1775–83, struggle by which the Thirteen Colonies on the Atlantic seaboard of North America won independence from Great Britain and became the United States. It is also called the American War of Independence.The casualty rate was roughly 120 in 10,000, the second heaviest of any large-scale American war. One way or another everybody within what became the United States took part in the conflict and felt its effects: Natives; Africans; patriots; loyalists; neutrals; Northerners; Southerners; and backcountry folk, both men and women.

Political upheaval of world importance in France that began in 1789. Fiscal crises and years of feudal repression were among factors leading to a revolution in France (1789–1799) marked by the storming of the Bastille, the guillotining of Louis XVI, and the Reign of Terror. Although the revolution abolished legal privilege based on birth and guaranteed freedom of religion, its legacy is ambiguous; gains must be seen in the context of the suffering produced by denunciations, purges, executions, and war.

Violent upheaval in Russia in 1917 that overthrew the czarist government. The Russian Revolution was an event of enormous significance in twentieth-century world history. It marked the end of the distinctive society of czarist Russia, the world’s largest country at the time, and the beginning of the first large-scale effort to construct a modern socialist society.

Treaty establishing the European Union (EU). Agreed in 1991 and signed in 1992, the treaty took effect on 1 November 1993 following ratification by member states.

An association of independent states formed in 1945 by 51 states as a successor to the League of Nations. The UN aims to maintain peace and international cooperation as well as to promote social development and human rights; has headquarters in New York City. At the end of World War II, the United Nations was established with the aim of preventing further devastating wars. It is a member-based international organization open to all legitimate sovereign states in the international community. While it has a broad and expanding mandate that changes with the times, maintaining international peace and security remains a central aim.

An economic and political grouping that was formed (1993) to extend the European Community by adding common foreign and security policies to the single market.

Military association of major Western European and North American states set up under the North Atlantic Treaty of 4 April 1949; with aim of maintaining international peace. NATO's role is to ensure the freedom and security of its members by both political and military means.