Why Are The Articles Of Confederation Ineffective

The Articles of Confederation were put in place in 1781, after the Revolutionary War. This period of time in our country’s history was marked by experimentation. After gaining independence from Britain, a system of government was necessary to meet the needs and desires of the country as a whole. The Articles of Confederation served as this system of government, but ultimately failed for a number of reasons.

Lastly, there was no uniform system of currency. In the Articles of Confederation, it did not specify a certain type of currency. It gave power to both the federal and state governments to print their own money. This caused major issues, it was remarkably hard to regulate trade between the states since they all had a different forms of

The Articles of Confederation was ineffective because it gave too much power to individual states and there was a weak national government. Congress had little authority. Under the Articles of Confederation individual States not Congress had the power to levy and collect taxes, and to regulate foreign and state to state commerce; also there was only a state legislature no judicial or executive branches. Almost every state had its own currency of monies along with different trade policy this led to chaos amongst the foreign exporters and economic disorganization. The separation of states led to disagreements amongst each other and national debt. States did not always financial support the government and Congress had no power to force them to.

Throughout the war the colonist hoped to settle here. The Indians promised the British peace as long as they did not allow any colonist to move to the west. For this reason the British did not allow the colonist to move to this area because it would cause a war between the colonist and Indians. The British could not afford another war due to debt. The colonist were

The Articles of Confederation established the first national government of the United States after it declared independence from England. The American Revolution heavily influenced this document, as the American people refused to have another tyrant rule their country. From 1781 to 1789 the Articles of Confederation provided the United States with an ineffective government because of its 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 united after the American Revolution.

The making of the treaty was a problem and a conflict for several reasons. One is that the Indians didn’t like it. They were very afraid of being moved onto a reservation. They hated being on reservations because they knew that the Americans were going to put them on the same reservation as 40 other tribes. Plus they didn’t want to move onto the same place with an enemy tribe!(Schuster 65) Neither would I. They would probably get into a fight or an all out war actually! Furthermore there were hardly any resources for one tribe, so how were they going to feed several? Especially when there were hundreds in each tribe! (Lambert, 150) Another reason the Indians didn’t like the treaty was because they couldn’t tell if the Americans were telling the truth, America had broken promises and ripped up treaties with other nations and tribes before, why not this one? Then there was the reason about not wanting to cede their land. It was theirs to keep. They had rightfully claimed that land and who were the settlers to take it? They had made that land livable and they were not about to give it up to a nation that was greedy and selfish in their eyes. Another reason why they didn’t like the treaty was that they didn’t want to give up their land. They wanted to be able to hunt and grow plants and fish, use their own herbs, use their own spices without having to beg, buy, and starve.

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 are the bound that united the original states in a “firm league of friendship”(Encyclopedia Britannica,inc britannica.com). The articles were not ratified until 1781. It was regarded as a reliable constitution. Many people looked at them as a failure which then brought about the US Constitution. “Although the Articles of Confederation was a failure some of the clauses were put into the Constitution, so this helped with the beginning of the Constitution”(Encyclopedia Britannica,inc britannica.com) .

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 no longer used as the basis of laws and rights that all states must follow due to it being an unfair system that caused states to follow the will of other states without consent, gave nine states the ability to form a makeshift congress excluding what at the time what was only four other remaining states near powerless, and allowed states to refuse the government soldiers when needed. The Articles of Confederation allowed for nine states to form a congress in the absence of the usual congress, that met once a year, allowing for nine states to band together and have near total power over any others, it allowed for states to if they so pleased to deny the government soldiers to fight in war inside or outside the country, this rule allowing states to refuse the lending of men to fight is the one of the main factors that led to Shays’ Rebellion, an uprising of four armies in Massachusetts that fought over a federal armory and the removal of the Articles of Confederation, three groups of rebels in Massachusetts rose and prepared to attack the federal armory, one of the three armies, Luke Day, wasn’t able to make it to the armory in time for the battle, the two other rebel armies, faced off against an army funded by wealthy Massachusetts land-owners.

The national government of the United States had many challenges under the Articles of Confederation. The Articles caused money problems and the most essential detail, a weak government. This also caused America conflicts among each of the 13 states. These problems greatly impacted the United States and it’s government as well.

The Articles of Confederation was the first constitution of the United States. They were written during the revolutionary war to create a more unified government, and to establish what the national government could and could not do. The Articles let each state keep “sovereignty, freedom, and independence,” and created a very weak central government. For example, Congress could not regulate commerce or impose taxes. The impact that the Articles of Confederation had on federalism for the next few years was: the federal government had very few powers, and most of the authority remained in control of each individual state.

One of the main disadvantages of the Articles of Confederation was that it encouraged a weak central government. Because nine out of thirteen states had to agree upon a law in order for it to be established, very few laws were passed. Amendments of the Articles of Confederation were never passed because the vote had to be unanimous. Not many decisions were made and the Congress generally only had the power to make treaties, deal with foreign affairs, and declare war. The Articles of Confederation read, “Each state shall contain its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right…” (Article II) The states had the most power and the Congress very rarely made decisions that affected the internal affairs of the states or country. There was only one house of Congress where each state only had one vote. This did not allow the bigger states with a greater population to have an advantage over the smaller states, which one could perceive as unfair in certain circumstances. Also, there was no judicial branch, which meant that if a case was not solved on a state level, it had nowhere to go. Fundamentally, the states held the most power. The lack of power within the Congress led to economic crisis.

They did not trust strong governments, so the central government very little power (Murphy). There was no court system given to the national government so the states were in charge of it all, which meant complaints could not be filed against them (Brackemyre). One of the only powers the national government had was to declare war but they were not allowed to raise an army to fight it and it lacked a chief executive to conduct foreign affairs. The United States also had an ineffective legislative under the Articles of Confederation. Amendments that they wanted to be passed needed to be vote on unanimously and there had to be a nine out of thirteen vote to pass a law (Kelly). Each state also had only one despite their population. Under the Articles, the government did not have a stable economic system, lacked key central leadership and had an inefficient legislature.

The Articles of Confederation, although a big first step, had more weaknesses than strengths. In fact, the major downfall of the Articles of Confederation was its weakness. Under the Articles, the federal government had little power and was too weak to enforce any laws. The Articles gave Congress the power to pass new laws but they did not have any power to enforce them. If a state decided that they did not want to follow a law then they could just ignore it. Congress also had no power to regulate trade or levy taxes and without an executive leader or federal court system there was no way to enforce anything. Another large downfall of the Articles of Confederation is that to Amend it required a unanimous decision which in most cases is extremely difficult. Because the Articles of Confederation are often considered a failure, it’s easy to look past the achievements of the American government under those Articles. The most important piece of legislation passed under the Articles of Confederation is the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. This Ordinance provided the guidelines by which new states would use to be admitted into the Union. Judges and Governors appointed by Congress would oversee a territory until there was five-thousand free male citizens of voting age. The citizens would then elect a territorial legislature, which sent a non-voting delegate to Congress. When the population hit sixty-thousand, the territorial legislature would be eligible to submit a state constitution,