History is full of unique and inspiring moments in time. U.S. History is one of the most fascinating aspects of history with notable events that have shaped the United States significantly. Two documents that led to a united nation were the Articles of Confederation and the U.S. constitution. Even though these documents are extremely crucial in American history, both possess weaknesses of their own. The Articles of confederation has two weaknesses, which were solved in the constitution, but still had a glaring problem. The first issue with the Articles of Confederation was that no president or national court system was existent. The people who wrote the Articles of Confederation most likely had established this type of government to ensure …show more content…
States did not have to listen to Congress and could make up their own rules. For example, Congress could not force states to provide soldiers for the army. This was troublesome because after the Treaty of Paris, the Continental Army disbanded and the states were refusing to give the government soldiers. Without an effective army, it was difficult to protect its citizens against foreign threats. Benjamin Franklin said, "The confederation…(was) formed under very unfavorable circumstances. We had just emerged from a corrupted monarch…most of us were ignorant…" This quote exemplifies the reason for the article’s faults, due to frantic people attempting to decide on a new national government just after emerging from a corrupted monarchy. Although the Articles of Confederation had setbacks, they were later solved in the …show more content…
These three branches utilize a check and balance system, where another branch has to approve of their actions before becoming official. The executive branch includes the president and the army, which finally solved the problem in the Articles of Confederation. The legislative branch composed of Congress and the judiciary branch was the Supreme Court. Congress was divided into a two-part house, which consisted of the Senate and House of representatives. "The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states…The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators from each states," stated in the United States Constitution. The second issue was straightened out by having Congress in charge of numerous tasks, including maintaining the army. The commander in chief for the army and navy became the president. Even though the Constitution improved upon the Articles of Confederation, it had a problem as
The Founding fathers did not want to create a government with too much power so they created the Articles of Confederation. This government turned out to be a failure. In 1787, the founding fathers met again to create a new framework of government. Most people feared creating a government that was too strong. To create a new government there had to be many compromises, the U.S. Constitution is the result of these compromises reached in Philadelphia in 1787. The Articles of Confederation were too weak and created many problems which led to a stronger National government. Two weaknesses of the Articles of confederation were that Congress did not have the power to tax. Another problem was that the states had most of the power and the National Government had little power. Two decisions made by the
The articles of Confederation was our first guiding principle as a country. We were in the middle of the fight for our independence with Britain when it was signed in 1777. One of the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation is that congress had no
The government under the Articles of Confederation found itself facing numerous of difficulties. By 1787, most Americans agreed that the Articles of Confederations were flawed and weak and needed at least two major changes. First, most people wanted Congress to have the power to
The Articles of Confederation experienced problems from the very beginning. The main problem was the articles of confederation didn't establish that all 13 states be a sovereign nation, it allowed all 13 states to be their own sovereign nations, in truth all the states were a confederation. Which allowed them to do whatever they wanted outside of the states with foreign affairs, which the federal government now handles. The solution to the sovereignty of the states was creating a national government to help the laws not being enforced be enforced in different states. This itself was another underlying issue. The solution to the states not following each others laws was fixed by The Full Faith and Credit Clause. The Full Faith and Credit Clause
From 1781 to 1789 the Articles of Confederation did not provide the United States with an effective government. This is due to the following three reasons: The United States’ lack of an army, nonexistent judicial branch, and surplus of power to the states. After the American Revolution concluded, thousands of soldiers returned home to find little or nothing left. Financial support the government had promised the soldiers with after the war was no longer available due to the inability of the central government to collect taxes as stated in the Articles (Doc. C). This later resulted in Shays’ Rebellion, a march led by Daniel Shays in western Massachusetts during January of 1787.
Many shortcomings were found in the Articles of Confederation. Two could be that the government had no
The “Recreation” of the Articles of Confederation Purposely created to establish a weak central government, the structure of the Articles of Confederation led to serious problems in the United States Government. The leading problems that led to weak government were an absence of a leader, giving the states the power to make their decisions, and not having enough representation per state. With the complaints from the citizens of the government being too weak for a nation, the delegates from all over the states joined to improve the Articles of Confederation. In early 1788 the Constitution was ratified and replaced the Articles of Confederation, fixing all of the major complaints and while adding more structure to the government, such as the three branches. Ratified by all thirteen states in 1781, the Articles of Confederation was established.
In conclusion, the Articles of Confederation provided the United States with an ineffective government in the 1780’s because of the lack of power to tax, raise an army, or regulate trade; however, it redeemed itself with the creation of the land ordinances of 1785 and 1787, and keeping the states together after the American Revolution. This government held the states together after the war, but it would not have for much longer if the constitutional convention did not draft a new document with which to govern the country that would fix the arising issues that came with the Articles of
Although weak and difficult, the central government could pass legislature in an organized manner, which was a massive starting point for the new nation. This starting point is what eventually led to the new Constitution, but at the time it did help with problems they faced. Another good reason for creating a weak central government and strong state governments was it caused the new nation to move away from the traditional British form of government, which helped unite the states even more. Overall, the Articles of Confederation helped the problems that first arose, such as the necessity for a central government, the necessity for a strong state run government, and a means to enact
The Articles of Confederation served as the written document that established the functions of the national government of the United States after it declared independence from Great Britain. Although, it established a weak central government, it contributed to U.S principles because The Articles of Confederation were the basis of the first government of the United States of America. The Articles were essentially the “training wheels” of the government; it was a learning point to create something much greater which became the Constitution. The problems that this weak document created, combined with the Confederation government’s ineffectual response to Shays’ Rebellion, convinced national leaders that a more powerful central government was necessary.
The feebleness of Congress was a major weakness of the Articles of Confederation. When the Articles of Confederation were adopted in 1777, they created a “loose confederation” of states (Pageant, 181). This meant that each state was independent and sovereign, linked by Congress only to deal with common problems and foreign affairs. Congress was meant to be part of a united central power of the government, but due to the abuse suffered from the king, the states so limited the powers of the central government to the point of powerlessness.
First, the Articles of Confederation were viewed as an overall weakness. It did not allow congress to obtain really any power over the people; therefore we had a weak central government. Congress was not granted the power that they needed in order to keep things in order,“Probably the most unfortunate part of the Articles of confederation were that the central government could not prevent one state from discriminating against other states in the quest for foreign commerce.” (Ginsberg, et. al. 2014: 35). States were rebelling and our new found country was in chaos and our Congress was not able to prevent states from discriminating against other states. For example, another downfall to this document was that, “The Articles of Confederation were concerned
The Articles of Confederation was the United State’s first constitution, it was written in an effort to unite the states after the American Revolution and served as a blueprint for the modern constitution. In order for the Articles to become official, they had to be approved by all thirteen colonies. Although Congress sent the Articles of Confederation to the states around the end of 1777 to become ratified, they were not officially adopted until March 1, 1781. Under these Articles, the states remained sovereign and independent, with Congress serving as the last resort on appeal of disputes. The American people feared a strong national government and as a result of this, the Articles of Confederation were specifically designed to be weak in the sense that each state maintains its own sovereignty and all rights to govern themselves, with the except of the rights exclusively granted to Congress. Since the Articles lacked many necessary components to keep a nation properly structured, they were eventually revised into the constitution we recognize today. Although, the Articles of Confederation seemed as though it only contained weaknesses, within the document, many strengths and accomplishments were made. Overall, the Articles of Confederation were proven to be both efficient and non-efficient during the time period they were in effect.
The Articles of Confederation were developed after the Revolutionary War, and were a good idea to help set standards for America. However, they had some major problems that needed to be solved in order for America to become a strong nation. After these problems were addressed the Constitution was developed.
The Articles of Confederation is the first constitution of the new United States, ratified by the Second Continental Congress on March 1st 1781. 1783 through 1789 is known as the era which America experienced tragic and weak government under an unskilled Confederation Congress. They brought an unstable economy and violence also class conflict. one argument about the power at the time was that there was no clear structure as to how money was collected from that states, and what power the continental congress had over taxes. which lead to conflicts and so did many other reasons, also it lead to the idea of making the constitution. Evan though the constitution is the most important document now there still were people who were against it the