Ancient World
Hiawatha & the Peacemaker
c. 12th–15th century · Consensual confederacy
A constitution built on consent, centuries before the state.
Haudenosaunee tradition credits Hiawatha and the Peacemaker with ending generations of blood feud among the Five Nations by means of the Great Law of Peace. Its chiefs held no power to command: clan mothers chose them, the people could remove them, and decisions required consensus. It is among the earliest recorded constitutions to treat authority as something lent and revocable, and the oldest working model of self-government without a sovereign.
Why it matters for freedom
The Great Law of Peace bound chiefs by consent and let the people recall them: a working confederacy with no throne.
Who they stood against
the blood feud among the Five Nations, and every later claim that peace needs a ruler on top