The Articles of Confederation was the original constitution of the United States, which was ratified in 1781, and replaced by the US Constitution in 1789. The Articles of Confederation was put into place to give the colonies a sense of unified government during the Revolutionary war. There were strengths and weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation. Strengths of the Articles of Confederation consist of declaring war and to make money, to borrow money, detail with foreign countries and sign treaties, as well as operate post-offices.
Due to the many weaknesses of the Articles the convention that was held to revise the articles ended up throwing away the Articles of Confederation and starting all over again. A weak congress was one of these weaknesses. “The Articles created a loose confederation of sovereign states and a weak central government, leaving most of the power with the state governments” (Library of Congress). The main problem with the Articles of Confederation was that it failed to give power to the federal government. The new states needed to unify under one constitution and they needed to establish a soverign central government. The Articles of Confederation was a significant step toward national unity. Most American historians said that the Articles of Confederation were insignificant because of the subsidiary position occupied by the central government. The new states needed a central government. Congress had little power to impose upon the states. They could not regulate taxes, and this led to states taxing other states. It could not enforce power upon individuals, unify foreign and domestic policies, enforce treaties, or pass navigation
The Articles of Confederation and the Constitution are very alike. Like, they were both written by the same person, and they were both official government of the united states. Plus, They were both the laws of the United States government. However, there was a great connection between them it was that the Articles of Confederation was the first written Constitution. The AoC was used to make the Constitution with the weaknesses and failures of it. If our country never made the AoC it would be pretty hard for us to make the Constitution. The Aoc had such a big effect on the Constitution it gave James Madison ideas of what to fix and put on the Constitution. It also gave us facts on what our country succeeded on.
The Articles of Confederation was an agreement among the thirteen original states of the United States that served as the first constitution. The Articles had first been introduced by Richard Henry Lee in the Second Continental Congress. Although the Articles of Confederation has made its contributions throughout history, the Articles, however, did not last very long and had been proven inadequate from the very start. I agree with this statement based on the examples and analysis of the Constitution I will soon provide. The Articles of Confederation were written during a time when the American people feared a strong national government. Since the United States was relatively a new nation, it needed some form of organization to hold the states together and keep its government and society stable to build a stronger economy (Knoedl, 2003).
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.
The Articles of the Confederation was the first government constitution that the United States used, and, although there were strength like the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, there were major weaknesses of the Articles of the Confederation like the following: requiring 9 out of the 13 colonial votes from the representatives from different states to pass a law; having no executive and judicial branch; and the federal government being unable to impose tax revenue onto the states. Such flaws would eventually lead to the Constitution and the repeal of the articles, for the Constitution was a measure to fix the problems of the articles with a stronger government that allowed them to impose taxes and and implement new laws for a more effective government.
All of the issues in the Articles of Confederation were resolved in the Constitution. For example, under the Articles of Confederation, Congress had zero power to tax, regulate trade between the states or enforce laws. This problem was fixed in the Constitution because it had the U. S ruled by a strong central government that could tax, regulate trade and enforce laws. The Articles of Confederation also had many weaknesses like having no national army or currency. This was fixed by the Constitution because now, there is a national army and a national currency (dollars). The last difference/problem was that the government previously had no Legislative branch, Executive branch and no national court system. Now there is a supreme court (Judicial branch), a president (Executive branch) and two houses of Congress (Legislative branch).
The Articles of Confederation established a poor government. Many problems caused the government to be weak. One major problem with the Articles of Confederation was that the government had no power to collect taxes. This effect the government, because the government couldn't get money to pay the debts the US had or even for the army. This document had just formed a weak, poor government that had no power.
The reason that the Articles of Confederation established such a weak government was because the colonists were afraid that a strong central government would become tyrannical and oppressive like the British were towards the colonists. However, instead of leading to the downfall of America, the deficiencies that were evident in the Articles of Confederation furthered the definition of the principles of America because the insufficient government of that time voiced a need for a stronger government. To answer this need, the colonists passed the Constitution of the United States. The founding fathers ratified the Constitution in 1787, and it established a much stronger government than the Articles of Confederation. The Constitution founded the laws that would govern America for centuries; it was a crucial factor in the development of the identity of America. The Constitution gave Americans the freedom and rights that have become the hallmark of the country. It organized the foundations of America that would eventually evolve to become one of the most powerful and influential nations in the
The Articles of Confederation was written when the United States was a fairly new country, and from the people wanting to create a different government from the king of England. Although this document respected individual rights, it was too loose of a document that could drive the country to success. After revising what they had created, the founding father of the us the created the us constitution. It was more strict, but still valued peoples rights.
There was the problem that the articles wouldn’t be able to raise taxes. Which caused the inability to get the country out of debt which had came from the revolutionary war. Also the inconvenience of not being able to support any of the government projects, war, or sciences that the government chooses to fund. Congress couldn’t regulate trade, this could cause many issues among the colonies. Such as trading with countries in which other colonies do not like or have issues with could cause trade to stop between those two colonies or multiple colonies. Another thing that is important within the Articles of confederation is that laws could be passed by 9/13 states. That sounds fine and dandy but the story behind that makes it seem like it was pointless and unfair. There was resistance for ratification of the Articles of Confederation from New York, Pennsylvania,Virginia and Rhode island which had gotten the nickname “rouge island” because of all the resistance the continental congress had encountered from Rhode island. If you do some simple math the only states that needed to approve it were the ones who didn’t offer resistance to the Articles and wanted a new government. Another silly thing all the founding fathers missed in the Articles is that the continental congress couldn’t enforce any laws. Which in so many words meant that congress could make all the laws they wanted but none of the states had to follow it due to the state government having much more power than the federal government. All the flaws in the Articles in confederation had made many things happen such as Shay’s rebellion and of course the adaptation of our new government which took ten months for the first nine states to ratify the rest of course came one by
The Articles of Confederation provided the United States with a predominantly ineffective government that could not deal with problems at home and abroad. The country was unable to regulate commerce and effectively deal with foreign nations from 1781 to 1789. Although there were some advantages to the first constitution, the issues caused by the document greatly outweighed the benefits. The Articles of Confederation limited America’s ability to deal problems within its own borders and with foreign nations.
The Articles of Confederation were the first set of guidelines for the government in America that was ratified in 1781. The Articles of Confederation limited the powers of the government, gave most of the control to each individual state, did not require a president, and was quickly found to be ineffective. It left America at risk to be invaded by other countries or to suffer from economic problems. If another country wanted to conduct business in America, they had to deal with each state individually. Any amendment required unanimous approval (Evans & Michaud, 2015).
The Articles of Confederation were put into effect to form some semblance of a central government, to keep peace between the states and to keep individual states from conducting foreign diplomacy on their own. Unfortunately the articles were flawed and gave the existing government little to no power. Federalism was the number one weakness of the Articles of Confederation. Without a separation of powers this type of government was bound to fail.
The Articles of Confederation was a document used to create a stable form of government for the United States during the American Revolution. However, this new form of national government had a mostly negative effect, with some exceptions, on the foreign relations and economic conditions of the country. Therefore, the Articles of Confederation was too weak and unstable to sustain the American country and made situations worse for the United States, rather than helping it improve and succeed on their way to independence.