Articles Of Confederation Dbq

The first attempt of the Continental Congress to establish a new government was with the establishment of the Articles of Confederation which proved to be a weak form of government. It gave too much power to the state government, and as a result the U.S. Constitution was established in the year 1787.

The Articles of Confederation was established in November 1777 and was the United State’s first written constitution. The Articles of Confederation had no intentions in forming a strong government, so its main concern was limiting the powers of the national government. Although its power was limited, Congress was given the power to “declare war and make peace, to make treaties and alliance, to coin or borrow money, and to regulate trade with the

There were many flaws in the Articles of Confederation that did not allow the states and national governments to run the United States appropriately. To begin with, the Articles of Confederation required that the all 13 states had to agree to the amending of the Articles of Confederation (Ginsberg, 35). If the Continental Congress wanted to amend the Articles it would be practically impossible for them to do because all 13 states had to agree with this. Another unfortunate part of the Articles of Confederation was that “the central government could not prevent one state from discriminating against another state in the quest for foreign commerce” (Ginsberg, 36). As I mentioned before, there was no executive branch that allowed the national government to execute laws, but in addition there was also no judicial authority and no other means of enforcing the Congress’s will (Ginsburg, 36). Without an executive or judicial branch neither Congress nor the national government would be able to do anything at all. The Articles of Confederation was proven to be inefficient because it did not provide a sense of unity nations, instead there were 13 separate states that could decide on what they each wanted to do in their own state (Module2.2). For example, when “John Adams of Massachu was sent to negotiate a new treaty with the British, the British government

Recognizing that these issues were symptoms of fundamental flaws in the Articles of Confederation, the delegates soon abandoned the plan to revise the Articles and committed themselves to a second founding—a second, and ultimately successful, attempt to create a legitimate and effective national system of government. Second, the framers sought to prevent what they saw as the threat posed by the “excessive democracy” of the state and national governments under the Articles of Confederation. This led to such constitutional principles as the bicameral legislature which was a legislative assembly composed of two chambers or houses. Checks and balances which was mechanism through which each branch of government is able to participate in and influence the activities of the other branches. To prevent the new government from abusing its powers, the framers incorporated principles such as the separation which was the division of governmental power among several institutions that must cooperate in decision making. Federalism a system of government in which power is divided, by a constitution, between a central government and regional governments. The Constitution restricts the power of the states in favor of ensuring enough power to the national government to give the country s free-flowing national economy. The framers’ concern with the national concern with national supremacy was also expressed