Learn the History of Petitions

A petition is a piece of document that has a list of signatures to show agreement to a common idea and also support a cause.
Petitions are used to show the power of agreement and the number of people supporting the cause.
If there is a certain issue pertaining to the society and the government or the authority is against it, then a petition is used so that it can show the majority and ask the authority to give in to their wishes.
The petition also suggests that if the authorities do not agree, then there would be a large amount of opposition and all the people who have signed the document will stand up for their cause.
Petitions, though may be used more in the current times, are not a new concept.
They have existed for hundreds of years in different forms.
The petitions system was widely used in England during the 18th and 19th centuries.
Petitions were first used in China perhaps.
During the pre-modern imperial times, petitions were sent to the Office of Transmission where they could be read aloud to the emperor.
Even the British followed a similar system and took the concept from the Chinese.
One of the most popular petitions in history was the People's Charter in 1838 which requested that every man should get a voting right at the age of 21, the use of ballot and he should get the permission to elect his own government.
That is how the House of Commons was born through a petition system.
There is a Petition Clause in the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
This clause gave right to the people to petition the government if they wanted their grievances to be addressed.
It also gives the people the right to file lawsuits against the US government.
Australia got women's suffrage through petitioning, and it was the petition that ultimately gave women their rights.
Today, petitions are more common than ever before.
This is primarily attributed to the Internet as it allows people with similar thoughts and opinions to converge together without being physically present.
Many social networking sites have seen thousands of petitions being signed by people from all over the world as they believed in the cause.
These petitions are not sent to any government.
Rather they allow ordinary people to vent out their frustrations or raise important issues.