Articles Of Confederation Dbq

The Articles of Confederation was the colonies first plan for government during the American Revolution. However, it weakened the unity of the government and the effects of this were events such as, the Treaty of Paris 1783, the Annapolis Convention, and Shay’s Rebellion, that caused leaders to want to revise the Articles. It separated the thirteen states into their own territory under congress and there was no real federal influence. In Article III, it states, “The States hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general warfare.” The Articles of Confederation were formed around this idea, to have as little influence on the colonies
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After the battle of Yorktown, the British had surrendered to the Patriots, paving the way to put the Treaty of Paris in action. The Treaty of Paris ended the American Revolution, gave the colonies their independence, and established boundaries between the colonies and British North America. Although, individual states ignored some of the provisions of the Treaty of Paris. For example, property laws: the Treaty of Paris states that the colonists had to give the Loyalists their land back when they returned from England, but they refused to give the Loyalists their land back, and Congress was not granted power to enforce that upon the colonists. It was impossible for the national government to pass laws due to the fact that nine out of thirteen states had to agree before a law could be passed. In addition to this, the Articles of Confederation did not provide separation of power. The only branch of government was the legislative body, Congress. There was no president or any other authority figure to look to, nor was there a judicial branch, meaning there was no way to enforce laws. Due to this issue, Congress was not capable of making the states adhere to the Treaty of
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The rebellion was an armed uprising by small farmers over high debts and tax burdens. The American Revolution cost the British a lot of money, but instead, these costs were put upon the colonies through taxes such as the Stamp Act and Townshend Acts, rather than the British taxing their own people. This new established government of 1777 was given the responsibility to continue paying for Britain's debts and each colony was required to help pay it off individually. The government threatened the farmers to pay taxes or else their land would be sold, but farmers could not afford the tax being imposed on their state. As a result, the farmers started to resist taxes through violence and did not cooperate with the government. The rebellion opened the eyes of delegates and politicians as they started to realize the Articles of Confederation were flawed. Because the Articles created such a powerless government, it had no control over handling major crises, like Shay’s Rebellion, Under the articles, the Congress was tasked with creating and maintaining an army, and could request states to send soldiers, but they could not enforce this request. Furthermore, Congress did not have a militia to stop the rebellions that were taking place. The government was also able to print money, but had no power to tax; the printing of money to pay for the war, but having no way to back the money, which later led to inflation. By