Introduction

In our next unit, we are going to explore the founding of the United States government and focus on the formation of the United States Constitution. As you will see across this unit, the Founding Fathers were experimenting when they embarked on creating a new government, but there consistent ideas and principles that we still see in our government today, despite all the changes that have taken place over the last couple centuries.

As future voters and as members of your community, it is important that you understand the key concepts of our government and understand how it works so you can understand how it effects you. Our government's power comes from the people, the concept of popular sovereignty, but it can only function that way if the people choose to participate.

In our last two units, we explored the American Revolution and why the colonists were declaring independence from Great Britain. The rationale behind the decision to declare independence directly impacted the way the Founding Fathers decided to design their new government.