John Locke's Contribution To The Development Of Colonial Foundations

The development of colonial foundations did not all occur in one day. There are countless key factors that played an important role in response to the progression of the colonial foundations. Colonial political developments were influenced by traditions from their mother country - England, as well as many ideas of the Age of Enlightenment, and colonial experiences and many other aspects. Self-governing structures were common and yet varied in procedure and nature among the 13 colonies. The impact of political precedent of the evolution of self governing structures in the colonies included documents such as the Magna Carta and so forth. The Magna Carta was one of the key factors that led to the development of colonial foundations. In the document,
it allowed the people of England to obtain more of their natural rights as it limited the King's power which consisted of not allowing the King to sentence innocent individuals in jail or the collection of money without a proper reason. "In the future, no official shall place a man on trial upon his own unsupported statement, without producing credible witnesses to the truth of it." provides a greater insight on what the document did, which was to limit the amount of non-supported imprisonments of innocent individuals without any credible witnesses. (Magna Carta: Clause 38) This of course, impacted the people of England greatly, sooner or later leading to the spread of self-governing, due to the fact that people wanted to continue being able to have their consent taken into consideration. The document such as the Magna Carta gave the individuals more power, which led to the rule of constitutional law in England. By 1641, "No man shall be put to death without the testimony of two or three witnesses, or that which is equivalent there unto." almost assimilating the followings of the Magna Carta, which had been written over 200 years ago. (Massachusetts Body of Laws and Liberty: Clause 47) Since the signing of the Magna Carta, the power of the absolute monarchy started going into decline, causing the presence of self-governance to become more and more ubiquitous. Furthermore, Enlightenment thinkers such as John Locke, were a highly influential part of the development of self-governing foundations.
John Locke believed that the governments existence was to protect the person and property of those involved in its rule. "We have reason to conclude that all peaceful beginnings of government have been laid in the consent of the people..." (John Locke - Two Treatises of Government 1690) validates that the beginning or foundation of a successful government according to Locke is when there is consent of the governed, and when there is liberty from any superior powers. In the history of the British colonies, they were under the monarchial rule of England, in which was their motherland for majority of the colonists. After the French and Indian War, the relationship between the colonies in the Americas with the British began to sour, which caused them to seek independence and fight for the right of being able to have their own government. This was a component that led to the progress on self governance, since the colonies were outraged about the number of unfair acts the British implemented on them after the French and Indian War because of a war debt, in which included the Tea, Stamp, Sugar Act and more. Which soon led the American Revolution for Independence. To have their own government, meeting spaces also played a gigantic role in the colonies. "The discussion turned to taxation policies of the British Empire....Boston reports were carried throughout the colonies and led them together towards united and independence..." topics such as taxation and others discussed in the Faneuil Hall, which was used as a meeting space for the town government, was known for becoming the focus of revolutionary activity in Boston. (National Park Services) The people who were involved in the town government would often meet and have discussions which would most importantly, expand the thoughts about the government they were under and the unfair
treatment that was being implemented. Having a meeting space ultimately merged the ideas of the town and led to the beginning of the fight for independence. By July 4th, 1776, the American Declaration of Independence was signed, which broke the American colonies away from Britain. From then, the colonies no longer felt upset about being taxed without being represented. Over the course of many years, the freedom of the American colonies greatly increased, leading to its freedom from Britain because different aspects which mainly included documentations such as the Magna Cart and Enlightenment thinkers on the evolution of self-governing structures in the colonies. Therefore, these political developments were influenced by traditions from their mother country which all started when the natural rights of the colonists were being neglected.