The Mayflower Compact

Min Thant Tin

B.A. (Hons) (English), M.Hum. (Literature & Culture)
(Airlangga University, Indonesia)
European Colonization in North America
 After European explorers reached America in the 1400s, the powers of
Europe began to colonize the territories that they claimed across North
America.
 The English, competing against the French and Dutch, began to send
ships to New England, and eventually dominated the eastern seaboard
of what would become the United States.
Purposes of Colonization

 Many of the ships sent from England went in search of

trade and wealth.
 Some groups of people seek freedom from political
and religious persecution at home.
 Among these groups was a sect of Puritans we know
today as the Pilgrims.
Pilgrims

 The Pilgrims were separatists from the Church of England

who believed that the church needed reform and
restoration from corruption.
 Facing increased persecution for their beliefs, a group of
Pilgrims left England in 1620 aboard a ship called the
Mayflower.
 After crossing the Atlantic Ocean, the Pilgrims eventually
settled near what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Mayflower Compact

 Upon arrival, with limited contact with royal or colonial

authorities, the Pilgrims drew up the Mayflower Compact, a
plan for self-government.
 While avowing their loyalty to the king of England, Pilgrims also
created laws and regulations through majority rule.
 The Mayflower Compact drew heavily on English democratic
tradition that was born out of the Magna Carta
 it represented the first attempt at majority self-rule in the New
World.