The two most important problems which made the Articles of the Confederation a poor form of government stemmed from their lack of power; specifically their lack of power to collect taxes and lack of power to raise an army. These issues led to the creation of the Constitution and in turn led to more issues due to differences between Federalists and Antifederalists. To combat the new come issues, compromises were struck between the given groups within the government. These compromises were called the Great Compromise and the Three/Fifths Compromise. The Articles of the Confederation lack of power to collect taxes and raise an army can be seen along with other problems in document two’s image “Rough Sailing Ahead”. This image is of a boat, representing the articles, being slammed with waves, representing the issues. As seen in document two, each wave represents a particular problem facing the articles. The two given reasons can be seen as more important in the image because the waves reflecting them …show more content…
The major two issues were how states were represented and how population was defined. Document four shows a bar graph giving the population of the specific states in 1790. States with a smaller population would be favored if there were to be completely equal representation in the government On the other hand, states with a larger population would be favored if there were to be representation based on population. The answer to the problems are seen in document six. This document has a simple graph showing the solution to representation in government through two separate houses, one based on population and one based on equal representation. Also, the definition of population was questioned as to whether slaves were counted or not. To deal with this the Three/Fifths compromise was struck. Each slave counted as three/fifths of one
The biggest hurdle started when the representatives from Virginia (at the time the largest state) proposed a plan for representation in the new government. Their plan, called the Virginia plan, would be radical for
Week 6 Review Questions 1. How did the limited central government created by the Articles of Confederation reflect the issues behind the Revolution and fears for individual liberties? The limited central government represented more of a peace treaty between that states than a blueprint for a powerful nation. It was created to maintain national coordination during the Revolution, but not much more; The States still held most of the power. The only powers the national government held were those essential to the Revolution such as declaring war, conducting foreign affairs, and making treaties with other governments (Foner 249).
What weaknesses hampered the government of the Articles of Confederation? One weakness of the Articles of Confederation is that it lacked a sense of national unity. Each state acted in its own best interest, no matter how that affected other states. Another problem is that every state had to approve amendments to the Articles, and this was unlikely given that each state acted in their own best interest. Finally, war debt could not be paid off because the states prohibited Congress from imposing taxes to raise money.
The Articles of Confederation were not the ideal set of laws that the founding fathers intended. They had their flaws, but they also contain a few laws that fixed some current problems of the country. The problems that faced the new nation were, the need for unification and preservation of this unification of the states, the rules emplaced on expansion and settlement of western lands, and it set up a economy, that was vital to the country. The states had just won the revolutionary war by coming together to fight the British, and the Articles of Confederation made sure that this unification was official and permanent.
But many problem still challenged this new nation. After the Article of Confederation failing due to the weakness of the central government, the different states had to develop a new a form of government. But the different states did not seem to be agreeing on one single plan, the bigger states want the government to work in their favor, and the smaller states wanted equal representation in the government despite of size, wealth and population. All the delegates from the different states had to work together and make many different compromised to all agree one a well-drafted constitution. However, the ratification of this Constitution still faced many issues, some states wanted more individual state power and rights granted to individual American citizens.
The anarchy that manifested from the imbalanced of power and liberty by the Articles of Confederation and the dysfunctional nature of the military caused mistrust between Americans and their Continental army. As a new country, the mistrust shed the light on how America, in the midst of a revolution, needed an adamant central government in the event that there is another war or national
The Great Compromise which was founded at the Constitutional Convention wasn't formed without trouble. Many of the delegates that participated in the convention were wealthy landowners and lawyers, who owned many slaves. They failed to notice the diversity that excited within the nation. As they talked how to repair the Articles of Confederation, issues would arise that would create continuous debates amongst each other. One of the issues that would arise would be the nature of the new government.
America was founded as a land of equal opportunity and freedom. Although we eventually gained our independence from England and started to form our democratic country, one of the largest issues in the developing state was power. Land was everything to new comers in america in the 17th and 18th century, because if you posed the land you posed the power and wealth. The entire nation was decided into different colonies because most land owner had subdivided sections and didn't want to give in and band together to form a union. The Articles of Confederation was the first form of constitutionalized doctrine signed by the thirteen original colonies the declared the United States of America as a confederation of sovereign states.
Based upon analysis of the documents and my knowledge of social studies it is my belief that the weaknesses of the articles of confederation led to a debate among the delegates over individual rights and representation which was ultimately resolved by the compromises in the U.S constitution. The main weakness of the Articles of Confederation comes from the fact that it was called a confederacy which placed all the power in the hands of the states. Back then the central government was basically like a charity, so it could only go around and asks for money not being able to get the right amount of funds to have thing like having a army or a national court system brought a lot of chaos to the state. Massachusetts was one of the main states that
A couple of ideas and events led to believe that in 1786 and 1787 that the Articles of Confederation were lacking provisions for a strong and central government that were not working well. These events and ideas made a big impact on the government we have today in the United States. The Articles of Confederation were a model to the present day Constitution; it took many trials and tribulations to finally get it right. The events that took place showed the people what the Articles were lacking.
Compromising was crucial. The individual states, and opposing parties such as the federalists and antifederalists had to work together for the progression of the country. The Articles of Confederation had an unfit ratio of strengths to weaknesses. One of the main weaknesses was an excessively restricted
In drafting the constitution the establishing father were obviously worried to redress the insufficiencies o f thee articles of confederation under which the insubordinate provinces had been administered amid the insurgency. The articles had presented official and in addition administrative power on congress setting up in actuality parliamentary government without a prime’s pastor. The individuals who differ were consoled by the desire that Washington would be the main head of state. In the meantime their test under the British crown drove the establishing father to support less centralization of power than they saw in the British government. The constitution additionally brought congers into the bargain making process with holding from the president the selective power appreciated by European rulers to make arrangements.
The Articles of Confederation was America’s first constitution and at the time it seemed like a great alternative for a government. These Articles of Confederation put the Congress at the highest power in the nation. The Congress had the power to conduct foreign affairs, maintain armed forces, borrow money, issue currency, and establish a postal system. However, the lack of power given to the Congress, to avoid too much power, made it hard to do their place in government. The Congress has no power to tax, which meant that it had to rely on the states to collect and forward taxes, which the states were reluctant to do, leaving the central government short on money.
Following the Revolutionary War, America had just gained independance from Great Britain and needed to form a new government. The Articles of Confederation were established as an attempt to create a government that was unlike Britain’s. Unfortunately, the Articles of Confederation had several weaknesses. When in the process of repairing those weaknesses, the Federalists and the Anti-federalists formed. The Articles of Confederation were very weak as well as useless to America and because of this, the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists could not agree on a new type of government.
In one hand, the Articles of Confederation had a weak central government, differing form the strong central government in the Constitution. The Constitution’s government had a structure of three different branches; the legislative, executive, and judicial branch; unlike the Articles of Confederation that had no structure whatsoever. The Articles of Confederation had many problems like, the poor international trade, poor foreign relations and a weak economy in contrast to the Constitution that only had one problem, the struggle over the ratification. the Articles of Confederation achieved the Northwest Ordinance and the Northwest Territory and according to a history website, the Constitution achieved that we had a system of checks and balances, that we had a bill of rights, and, eventually, the survival of a bloody civil war intact. Lastly, the Constitution had three compromises: the Great Compromise, the Three-Fifths Compromise and the Slave Trade compromise.