When it comes to the world's number one power, the first thing that comes to mind is the United States. Although the United States seems to be declining in various reports now, the basic framework of the world we live in is still designed by the United States after World War II. The level of awareness of the United States actually determines how much we know about the world today. At present, Sino-US relations are already very tense, and Sun Tzu said: Know each other and know yourself, and you will not be defeated in a hundred battles. Now, more than ever, we need to have a deep understanding of the United States.
Today, when we look at the United States, it is clear that it is the number one power in the world. But from the perspective of historical time, the most striking thing about the United States is its democratic politics. This is not only for us Chinese, but for the entire Western world, American democracy is also a sudden appearance. This origin, or political DNA of the nation, can be traced all the way back to the early days of the North American colonies, when it was condensed into a document called the Mayflower Convention. How important is this document? American historians simply refer to it as the "birth certificate" of the United States. But if you look at the time, Virginia, the first British colony in the Americas, was a full 13 years earlier than it, so why call this convention so many years late a birth certificate?
This is to restore the scene at that time. After the establishment of Virginia, the first British colony, ships continued to bring immigrants from Europe to North America. But the Mayflower, which arrived in North America on November 11, 1620, was very special. Outwardly, the ship couldn't have been more ordinary, a humble little sailing ship. And the name "Mayflower" is also very ordinary. At that time, there were at least three British ships running in the Atlantic, all of which were called "Mayflower". So what is it so special about?
Among the passengers on the Mayflower was a very special group called the "Puritans". It needs to be explained here that when you look at the history of the United States, you will often come across some religious names, in addition to the Puritanism just mentioned, there are also Protestantism and Catholicism. So what's the relationship between these? First of all, they all belong to the ** religion. Christianity used to dominate the world in Europe, but in the sixteenth century there was a Reformation, and a new sect was formed in the religion, which was Protestantism, and the old one was called Catholicism. Later, there were some small sects in Protestantism, one of which was Puritanism, and they had such a relationship. And the Puritans on the "Mayflower". This group is small in number, but particularly strong in religious convictions. They went to North America for a different purpose than the other colonists. Others are mainly driven by the economy, we say, to get rich and change their destiny. But this group of people is politically driven. Why? They went to the new continent of North America to build the ideal society in their minds. The first Puritan settlers boarded the Mayflower, which landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA.
You must know that at that time, all the sailing ships that crossed the ocean to North America were wooden sailing ships, and the conditions were very poor, and it was a month to stay at sea, and a group of people ate, drank, and vomited seasickness all on the boat, which can be said to be filthy and painful. So as soon as the ship arrives in North America, the immigrants are scrambling to get ashore, not wanting to stay on the ship for a minute. But this is not the case with the Mayflower. The ship encountered wind and waves and walked at sea for 66 days. After going through all the hardships and arriving in North America, a strange phenomenon appeared: what did the people on the ship do if they were not in a hurry to get ashore? A document was negotiated on board the ship, and finally 41 adult men signed it. This document, I don't say you can guess, is the famous Mayflower Convention. So why are these people doing this? That is, after arriving in this new world, no one has power over anyone, and no one needs to listen to others. In order to prevent everyone from messing around, we first sat together and made a contract on an equal footing and voluntarily as a code of conduct for the next step. So you see, that's a very different place. It's not that everyone elects a leader and then he gives orders, but everyone forms a contract on an equal footing and follows that contract. What is it? This is a simplified democracy, a respect for procedures and laws.
The Mayflower Convention is very short, less than 200 words in full, but the main thrust is very clear: we voluntarily form a political group of citizens to develop and implement a just and equal legal system. So you see, this contract is not an ordinary behavioral agreement, but a political agreement. It is not only the current behavior that regulates it, but also the construction of the future society. Later, the political ideas and political construction of the United States originated from it. But that's not the most important thing. Most importantly, through this contract, the gang gave themselves political power. You see, the convention speaks of voluntary formation of political associations and the development and implementation of a legal system. Who gave them permission to do that? Did the King of England allow it? No, it's the power they give themselves. Thus, the Convention actually establishes the principle that people have the right to self-government and the rule of law on a voluntary basis. That's a big deal. You must know that the first colony, Virginia, was authorized by the King of England, while the new colony built by the Puritans of the "Mayflower" was not authorized by the King of England, and the power came from themselves. If we follow this principle of autonomy, then more than 100 years later, the people of the thirteen colonies in North America will be able to say: We have the power to decide how we should govern ourselves. So you see, in fact, the legitimacy of American independence comes from the principle of autonomy in the Mayflower Convention. You must understand why Americans hold the Mayflower Convention so high, saying that it is a birth certificate of the United States, not the Virginia colony more than ten years ago. Because this convention was the source of the legitimacy of American independence in the future.
The average university history textbook talks about the Mayflower Convention, and that's the end of it. But did we ever think that a paper convention could make such a big difference? How did its effects last and spread? You know, there was a gap of more than 100 years between the Convention and the independence of the United States. If we use the analogy of biology and say that the convention is the gene fragment of American politics later, then how can this small gene fragment grow into a huge living organism? Most history textbooks don't touch on this issue. More than 100 years after Mayflower seems to be a huge black hole of time. There is a particularly important factor here, which is rarely mentioned in American history books, and that is that this genetic fragment is from England, and the Puritans on the Mayflower are all British, and they carry with them the spirit of British institutionalism and political contract. It was this spirit that enabled them to continue to uphold this contract after they came ashore. Another important factor is that in the more than 100 years since the Mayflower, the Convention has been repeated and practiced. If the Mayflower Convention was the core algorithm of later American politics, then its growth is inseparable from the countless repetitions that followed. Historians have found that after the Mayflower, immigrants from England to North America, especially the Puritan immigrants, continued to use this way of establishing a public contract to manage themselves, and it can be said that they practiced hundreds of times.