The United States Constitution
A written constitution with separated powers, amendable by design.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 4 years
- Known to
- ± 1 year
- Era
- Early Modern, Holocene
Drafted in 1787 and in force from 1789, it establishes a federal system with an executive, legislature and judiciary checking one another, and — unusually — a formal amendment process, so the document anticipates its own revision. The Bill of Rights follows in 1791. It becomes the model for written constitutions worldwide. Its compromises over slavery, including counting enslaved people as three-fifths of a person for representation, are built into the text.