The United States Constitution drafted and ratified

Date

17 September 1787

Category

Politics & governance

Region

United States (Philadelphia)

Era

Early Modern

Significance

Meeting in Philadelphia from May to September 1787, delegates from the American states abandoned an effort merely to revise the weak Articles of Confederation and instead drafted an entirely new frame of government.

Signed by thirty-nine delegates on 17 September 1787 and shaped by figures such as James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, the Constitution created a federal republic with separated powers, checks and balances, and a strong but limited national government drawing authority from "We the People." Its design balanced competing interests of large and small states and of region and faction. Ratification required approval by nine states; Delaware ratified first in December 1787, and the new government took effect after New Hampshire's ratification in June 1788, with a Bill of Rights added in 1791. The world's oldest written national constitution still in force, it established an enduring model of constitutional republicanism and federalism that influenced constitution-making across Europe, Latin America and beyond.

Empires active in 17 September 1787

• British Empire
  1583 CE – 1997 CE
• Qing Dynasty
  1636 CE – 1912 CE
• Russian Empire
  1721 CE – 1917 CE
• Spanish Empire
  1492 CE – 1976 CE
• Portuguese Empire
  1415 CE – 1999 CE
• Mughal Empire
  1526 CE – 1857 CE

Related politics & governance events

• The Declaration of Independence
  4 July 1776
• The storming of the Bastille and the outbreak of the French Revolution
  14 July 1789
• The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
  26 August 1789
• The Reign of Terror
  September 1793 – July 1794
• Napoleon's coup of 18 Brumaire ends the Revolution
  9–10 November 1799 (18–19 Brumaire)
• Peace of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years' War
  October 1648

Further reading

Empire of the Summer Moon

The wider story

Empire of the Summer Moon

S. C. Gwynne

Bestselling narrative of Comanche power on the plains.

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