Complex sentence: The concept of popular sovereignty (from which the consent of the governed derives its importance) did not originate in North America; its intellectual roots can be traced back to 17th-and 18th-century European political philosophy.
Split into simpler sentences: The concept of popular sovereignty (from which the consent of the governed derives its importance) did not originate in North America. Rather, its intellectual roots can be traced back to 17th and 18th European political philosophy.