The Importance of the Mayflower Compact The Mayflower Compact was written as a temporary form of government due to the unfair treatment suffered by some of the Mayflower's occupants. They also believed that the order had to come from someone with much higher authority, such as the king. The colonists were also undisciplined due to the lack of government; so some colonists thought they could do as they pleased. But by signing the Mayflower Compact, they ended all the unrest aboard the Mayflower. After John Smith landed in Plymouth, they felt that they had landed in a place that was not controlled by London (the king). The Mayflower carried one hundred and two passengers. They had traveled about 3,000 miles only to land north of their destination. They hoped to establish a colony at the mouth of the Hudson River, on the site of today's New York City. This would have placed the colony within the geographic boundaries outlined by the king in the charter of the Plymouth Virginia Company. A group of businessmen invested money to start the colony. In return they hoped to profit from New World products. The company's bylaws outlined how the agreement would be governed. But the passengers of the Mayflower had strayed from the confines of the charter. Now they were off the ship at Cape Cod on November 9, 1620, with no laws to govern them. The passenger list showed that the colonists needed to create a government. Of the one hundred and two passengers, the fourth were pilgrims looking for a place where they could practice their religion. They had separated from the Church of England due to religious differences. The pilgrims had lived for a time in Holland, now they hoped to start over. Basically these pilgrims need... middle of paper... "Bradford's nephew" in New England's Memorial (1669). The three versions had a difference in wording, spelling, capitalization and punctuation. The pact created the idea of ​​social contact. A social contract is a real or hypothetical compact between the governed and their rules that defines the rights and duties of each Although no specific duties were assigned to each colonist, the election established a higher order concept of the first governor of New Plymouth. It wasn't until the American Revolution that the Mayflower Pact received much attention. At this time the new nation began to look back to the roots of this self-government. Today the compact is often seen as the first example of American democracy as a social contract. But it is also clear that the idea arises from the practical need for unity to serve in the wilderness.