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When the Puritans and religiously persecuted Europeans fled to the Americas, the Puritans formed the Dominion of New England, consisting of mostly Puritans. In 1920, when the pilgrims came by the Mayflower, they signed the Mayflower Compact to give rights to everyone, including the people who were not Puritans. However, this was not the first constitution, because the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut was. It was made up of a legislative body and they elected a governor. Although life was harsh in the winters and plentiful in the springs, the colonists were angry at their motherlands for taking away their trading rights and making the profits only go in one direction: the English side. This soon led to tension and intensified to the American Revolution.

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The mayflower compact is an extremely significant document as it was the first document that allowed for "self governing". It also paved the way for future forms of self government and was a key part in the formation of the original colonies. One of the documents that resulted from the mayflower compact was the fundamental orders of Connecticut. This document essentially was an outline of the government that would be used in the Connecticut colony. Since Connecticut and other colonies had been advancing quickly England started to enforce the navigation laws. These laws essentially regulated all trade within the Americas and allowed the English to tax all of the colonies for all exports and imports. The dominion of New England was a government form similar to the one that had been in Spain at the time. It was not successful and democracy among other forms of self government would prove to be much more effective

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Each of these documents are clearly linked by their intention to absolutely maximize the potential of their authors and colonies or countries. The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of the Plymouth Colony. These separatists were trying to escape religious persecution by King James of England, and so established this governing document as a means to immortally write down their intentions. They wanted to govern themselves and be free of the tyranny they experienced back home. Only by taking full advantage of their devout religion would they be able to bring their colony to its full potential. The writing of the Mayflower Compact was the way to do this. The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut were written by a lawyer in an assembly of representatives from the three major Puritan settlements in Connecticut as they met to set up a unified government for the new colony. The document put the importance of the community above the importance of the individual, maximizing the potential of the colony as a whole. They also wanted to access the ocean for trading, allowing for greater profits. The Navigation Laws were a similar set of sneaky acts which would monopolize trade for the British. The British wanted trade in the colonies to be exclusively restricted to themselves so that they would make all the profit. These laws would allow Great Britain to profit heavily off the trade of the colonies while no one else could take advantage of the figurative and literal gold mines which they held there. Just as these acts centralized power to Great Britain, the Dominion of New England allowed this to happen for the English colonies. The Dominion of New England was an administrative union of English colonies in New England which provided a centralized political structure with which the colonists were not very thrilled. Colonists did not want to lose their rights by such a move, yet the Dominion stayed true in its actions. Eventually, the dominion was shut down in 1689 when the colonies received news that James II had been dethroned in the Glorious Revolution. Clearly all of these terms shared the hope of great progress being made through optimization of resources and people. This would contribute to major success in the approaching future for the colonies.

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In 1620, after the arrival of the Pilgrims to Plymouth Rock, the Mayflower Compact was constructed and served as a unified agreement on the basic rules of the new colony; essentially, the Mayflower Compact functioned as the first agreement of self-government in America. In 1639, a few years after the main settlements of the Connecticut area were founded, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut was constructed. Contrasting to the Mayflower Compact, which was more temporary and composed of colony guidelines, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut essentially unified the towns in the Connecticut area and set up a more permanent government for the local colonists; it served as the first constitution written in America. Connecticut along with Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire formed the New England Confederation in 1643. However, later on when King Charles II regained power, he placed tighter restrictions on American colonies in hopes of gaining better control of the rather independent colonies. He disbanded the New England Confederation and instead created the Dominion of New England in 1686, which served not only as a colonial defense against foreign invaders but also as a way to enforce Britain’s Navigation Laws onto the colonies.

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As the colonist migrated to  the New World, laws were put into place in order for governments to remain stable. When the Pilgrims first migrated they had to create the Mayflower Compact so that they could maintain order and unite their community. This agreement was relatively constitutional and was similar to the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut although the Fundamental Orders allotted more voting rights for me and let them run for elected positions. However, some agreements that controlled the government were forced upon colonies by Britain such as the Dominion of New England and the Navigation Laws. The Navigation Laws prohibited trade with any other countries other than England itself, decreasing the income of the colonies. Additionally, the Dominion of New England created a centralized government that was closer to a monarchy rather than the democracy that the colonies strove for.

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In the colonies, attempts to unify the colonists by forming a new government fell short. The Mayflower Compact created a crude set of laws that set the foundation for later colonists. Later, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut looked to do something similar, but it, in addition, brought a representative government. Other attempts of tightening relationships were streamlined by England. The Navigational Acts was one attempt, but it fell through because the relationship became restrictive, which is against the colony's ideal life. England also tried to connect the colonies by creating the Dominion of New England. This ultimately failed because the colonies had different ideologies, such as Rhode Island having more religious tolerance and Massachusetts having an exclusive community run on a Puritanism.

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Self-government was established in America from the earliest colonists in the Mayflower as the Mayflower Compact was signed by the males aboard the Mayflower and was essentially an agreement between the people on the Mayflower and is considered the first form of self-government in the Americas. The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut went a bit farther than the Mayflower Compact and established more of a constitution for the colony of Connecticut, leading to even more self-reliance as it granted the government access to sea trading, as well as granting more voting rights to men in the colony, things that are usually only given by the overruling government. However, England began to see the colonies self-government as a threat and established the Navigation Laws, which limited the countries the colonies could trade with to just Britain. The Navigation Laws also lead to extra taxes such as the Molasses Act and Stamp Act, both of which were received with harsh and even violent reactions in the colonies. The Dominion of New England was an attempt by Britain to gain more control over the colonies by implementing a more centralized form of government into the colonies. However, this was also met with firm resistance by the colonists as they overthrew the Dominion of New England immediately after King James left the throne in England. The development of America is shown as the colonies were initially extremely independent with mostly self-government, but as time went on, they lost their power and rights because of the paranoia of the British of an uprising from the colonists.

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With any new society, a set of rules has to be created in order to maintain order and in America, the first constitution began with the Mayflower Compact. The Mayflower Compact was written by the pilgrims of the Plymouth Colony. Soon after, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut was created and listed the structure of the Connecticut government. These two documents symbolized independence and the right to free rule, but the English imposed the Navigation Laws and the Dominion of New England which forced the Americans under English control. The English attempt to control the colonies would spark hatred and eventually the American Revolution.

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The Mayflower Compact was the first constitution-like document in America; because of this document, Pilgrims in the Plymouth colony agreed on a self-government style, like democracy, foreshadowing democracy in America.

Like the Mayflower Compact, and in around the same time, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut was a constitution-like document that established a democratic style administration in Connecticut. Navigation Laws were quite different from the Mayflower Compact or Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. The Navigation Laws restricted Americans from non-English trade and was an instance of English struggle to control the American colonies. Although these laws brought restrictions to Americans, they accidentally caused increased popularity of smuggling (and defying English), adding to the rise of self-government. Dominion of New England was more like the Navigation Laws--it was intended to be a means of controlling American colonies. Giving royal charters to un-official settlements like Rhode Island lessened the autonomy of the colonies. In Boston, for example, many restrictions were implemented and the town meetings, which had previously been used to reach group (and democratic-like) decisions, were banned. Like any English restrictions, the Dominion caused rebellion. The four terms all related to the path to self-government and democracy in America.

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Once the colonies were further advancing, the settlements were becoming even more independent and creating their own laws. First of all, the Mayflower Compact was the first document regarding government purposes in which the Pilgrims were able to settle on their own land and became a settlement of their own. The Pilgrims, however, still had to get permission from the King of England, and like the permission the Pilgrims had to get, the colony of Connecticut had to get permission from the government in order to trade overseas, which developed the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. Because of the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, more rights were created giving men the right to vote and allowing them to rise to higher positions. Unlike the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut which advocated for trade overseas, the Navigation Acts developed in order to lessen trade overseas between the colonies and other foreign peoples and countries. With these specific events and laws that developed, the Dominion of New England was established with its own political and economical structure that unified its people.

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In order for a society to be established and prosper, there must be order, and in order for there to be order, there must be rules. Therefore, the Pilgrims created the Mayflower Compact, which was a document of agreement on the formation of their society. Connecticut had something similar called the Fundamental Orders, which eventually became Connecticut’s constitution. These documents showed the independent aspects of the American colonies, which England disliked; therefore, the Dominion of New England was formed and the Navigation Laws were enforced in an attempt to regain more control over the American colonies. The Navigation Laws were successfully rebelled against, but the effects of an attempt at greater control still lingered.

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The culture of governmental documents in America began with the Mayflower Compact, an agreement that the voyagers to Plymouth would form a government. Later settlers such as the one in Connecticut also established legal constitutional documents such as the Fundamental Orders.  However, the English also saw fit to impose their regulations upon the colonies by the mid 1600s with the establishment of the Dominion of New England, which was governed from London. Also, the English began to restrict trade with the Navigation Laws which further angered the colonist, who to that point had experienced almost complete self-governance.

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Mayflower Compact
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
Navigation Laws
Dominion of New England
When the colonists first arrived in America, some rudimentary constitutions were drafter, and one of them was the Mayflower compact, where the settlers agreed to have a democratic government style to rule the colony. In addition, other colonies had something similar, like Connecticut, which had the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, which outlined the powers that the government had in the colony, similar to the Mayflower Compact. On the other hand, other colonies like New England instead used things like the Dominion of New England, which had a governmental style more similar to a monarchy rather than a democracy. Most colonists resented this, along with the Navigation Laws, which were taxes imposed on the colonists to help support England

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Early on, the colonies had a lot of autonomy, as in self-governance, but later on, the English Crown began to impose stricter rules and control over its colonies. An example of autonomy in the early days of English America was the Mayflower Compact and the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. The Mayflower Compact was an agreement signed by all the males of the Puritans and the non-Puritans on the Mayflower to establish a government. The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut led to the establishment of the Upper House, which gave more voting rights to men in the decision making of their colony. However, the King began to restrict some freedoms by imposing the Navigation Laws, which was an example of mercantilism, and later on, they established the Dominion of New England due to tensions rising between the English and the French in America. The Dominion of New England was run by Sir Edmund Andros, who was appointed by the British king, and so he continued to impose the Navigation Laws. The economic and political restrictions felt by the colonists suffocated them and this was another catalyst to the American Revolution.