Mendelian Inheritance is a set of principles that explain how traits are passed from parents to offspring. Developed by Gregor Mendel in the 19th century, these principles are based on his experiments with pea plants. Mendel discovered that traits are determined by discrete units called genes, which come in different forms known as alleles. Mendel's work led to the formulation of key laws, including the Law of Segregation and the Law of Independent Assortment. The Law of Segregation states that each parent contributes one allele for each trait, while the Law of Independent Assortment explains how different traits are inherited independently of one another.