The United States of America is a representative liberal democracy that is limited, republican (not to be confused with the Republican Party), and federal.
Originally the U.S. was 13 independent British colonies- Province of New Hampshire, Province of Massachusetts Bay, Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut Colony, Province of New York, Province of New Jersey, Province of Pennsylvania, Delaware Colony, Province of Maryland, Colony and Dominion of Virginia, Province of North Carolina, Province of South Carolina, and the Province of Georgia. All ties between the colonies and England were severed following the Declaration of Independence (adopted July 4, 1776) was sent to king George III and colonial victory in the Revolutionary War.
Following the Treaty of Paris (1783) the former colonies became 13 sovereign states loosely connected
with each other under the Articles of Confederation (A of C).
Because of the inherent weaknesses in this document and government a constitutional convention was convened in Philadelphia to amend the A of C in 1787. The delegates of this convention chose rather to draft a new constitution from several plans for government, such as the Virginia and New Jersey plans.
This new document was submitted to the A of C meeting body (Congress of the Confederation) who approved the U.S. Constitution under article 13 of the A of C. Following ratification by 9 of the 13 states in 1788, a process identified in the Constitution not article 13 of the A of C, the new government of the U.S. took effect on March 4, 1789. The last of the original 13 states to ratify the Constitution was Rhode Island who did so on May 29, 1790.
In the first U.S. Congress (1789) a series of legislation was introduced, and following ratification in 1791 became the original 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution or the Bill of Rights.
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