US Government: Branches, History, Constitution

Posted on Mar 6, 2025 in History

Structure of the US Federal Government

There is an overlapping power between the three branches; no branch of government has total power.

  • Legislative Branch: It is a bicameral congress that is constituted by the Senate and the House of Representatives.
  • Executive Branch: The power given to the President and Vice President of the United States. It has under its control many departments and independent agencies. Examples of departments: Agriculture, Commerce. Examples of independent agencies and government corporations: Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
  • Judicial Branch: It is constituted by the Supreme Court. (Has the most power).

The American Revolution (1775-1783)

The American Revolution (1775-1783) is the series of ideas and changes that resulted in the revolution and pursuing political separation of thirteen colonies in North America from the British Empire and the creation of the United States of America with a new political system. The War of Independence lasted from 1775 to 1783. Americans said, “No taxation without representation”. The inflection point was when the UK put a tax on tea; its consequence was The Boston Tea Party, a protest by the American colonists against Great Britain in which they destroyed many crates of tea on ships in Boston Harbor. The incident took place on Thursday, December 16, 1773.

The Articles of Confederation (1777-1781)

The Articles of Confederation, adopted on November 15, 1777, and ratified on March 1, 1781, was the first written document of government of the United States of America. The new name of the government: “The United States of America”. Each state retains its sovereignty (completely opposed to the Constitution).

Reasons it failed:

  1. Individual states had too much sovereignty.
  2. No president; it was only an agreement among friends.
  3. There was a unicameral congress.
  4. The national government had no army; the power to create an army belonged to the States.
  5. They didn’t have the national power to collect taxes; the States weren’t responsible for giving the money, so the state was broke.

The Declaration of Independence (1776)

Adopted on July 4, 1776.

The Constitution of the United States (1787)

The Constitution of the United States (1787) consists of seven articles. Before it, there were the Articles of Confederation. The first three words are “We the People”. There are twenty-seven amendments in the Constitution. Each article talks about something different.

  • Article I talks about the Legislative Branch. It establishes that to be a member of the House of Representatives, you have to be older than twenty-five years and have been seven years a citizen of the USA.
  • Section 8: Powers given to the new national government. List of enumerated powers (to lay and collect taxes, to borrow money on the credit, to regulate commerce, to establish a uniform rule of Naturalization, to coin money, to provide for punishment, to establish post offices and post roads, to promote the progress of science and useful arts, to constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court, to define and punish piracies against the law of nations…)
  • Article II talks about the Executive Branch. It establishes that to be president of the USA, you have to be more than thirty-five years old and have been fourteen years a resident of the US.
  • Article III talks about the Judicial Branch. It establishes that to be a senator, you have to be 30 years old.

The Bill of Rights (1791)

Amendments that were to be part of the Constitution, but they did not become part of it because the Constitution was difficult enough. Some founding fathers did not feel they needed it, and also because people thought this would be a limitation of rights.

  • Amendment I refers to freedom of expression.
  • Amendment II: The right of people to keep and bear arms.
  • Amendment III: Soldiers cannot live in your house in times of peace.
  • Amendment X (the last one): Any of these rights not mentioned are in people’s hands. It ends saying “to the people”.

Homeland Security

It is a department of the executive branch. It was made to integrate communications between these two agencies because they both had information about 9/11, and they did not share the information they had between them, and this led to the catastrophe of 9/11.