After the American Revolution, the colonies needed to reconstruct a new, fresh government. America, however, was extremely restrictive with giving the central government any forms of power after the hardships the colonies faced being under the British government and Parliament. The colonies did not want to undergo another period of unfair taxation and regulated systems. Thus, America’s first government, The Articles of Confederation, gave the central government immensely few granted powers. After an eight year period, the majority of America knew that they needed a new form of government. The thirteen sovereign United States of America and the American population shifted support from a weak central government under the Articles of Confederation …show more content…
When Congress put the US Constitution into effect and initiated the House of Representatives and the Senate, the government could impose laws on the colonies much more easily. The Articles of Confederation made creating laws exceptionally difficult as it required 9 of the 13 states to agree with Congress in order to enact new laws. Also, if the government wanted to alter itself, Congress needed a unanimous voting all of thirteen states to agree to the changes. Furthermore, imposing laws was quite difficult for America since this was during a time when almost of the colonists possessed an unhappy opinion towards government and taxes. It’s shown that the Articles experienced a grueling time imposing new laws and tariffs due to America’s struggle with trade regulations in between each colony, as the Articles couldn’t simply change the way trade worked. With the Articles unable to regulate trade in between each state, it was clear that the Articles could not create laws other than land policies, such as the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, and the United States of America needed a new form of government with a more powerful central
As seen in the earlier paper, the Constitution and the Articles of Confederation played a significant role in the development and progression of the United States of America. Although the Federalist were involved in the transformation as well, one must also have an insight as what was occurring during the time of the switch. As one knows now, both documents relate to one another, and were intended to service America and protect the people’s freedom by imposing the law. The Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation, because it was not stable, it limited the power of Congress, and limited the National government.
The Articles of Confederation, the first governing document in American history, only allowed for one branch of government, Congress, which could lead to one group of people having all of the power, possibly not allowing for representation of all of the social classes. This upper class tyranny was exactly the problem that the colonists had fled from in England, and they were afraid that these issues would continue to plague them in America. This fear led to a very weak central government, whose extremely limited power stunted the development of our young nation. Later, when writing the Northwest Ordinances, Jefferson proposed the idea of having three branches of government, and a system of checks and balances between the three to ensure
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).
It was the heat of the Revolutionary war and The Thirteen Colonies were preparing to declare their independence from Britain, yet before they do so, they needed to establish a form of self-government. Through the Articles of Confederation in 1776, the colonies had established their first independent government, although with it followed many problems. These problems, although numerous, did not come without some, yet very little, success and perhaps one of the best outcomes of the Articles of Confederation is how they paved the way for the much sturdier Constitution. The Articles of Confederation had been created in a rush and by were no means a permanent form of government for the colonies.
Therefore, Congress could not earn any money through all the international trade nor could they regulate the trade. Because of this, all of the states had the ability to trade with whomever they wanted and were not taxed or restricted. Furthermore, since Congress was unable to enforce treaties, other countries had no desire to create treaties with America because the treaties would never be fulfilled. As the Articles of Confederation limited the central government’s
In 1777, after the American Revolution had ended, the new United States of America adopted the Articles of Confederation as the new central government. The Articles made the government weak, powerless, and vulnerable out of fear for tyranny. This system had many flaws and created a lack of unity between the states. As a result, the Constitution of the United States was developed in 1789 to solve many of the problems that arose from the Articles. This new system re-constructed the government into three branches and created a system of checks and balances to prevent the government from becoming corrupt.
Following the American Revolution, America was divided into two political groups: the federalists and the anti-federalists. Both parties believed the United states future was in the best interest of the new nation. While the anti-federalists believed in power to the individual states, the federalists believed in a strong central government to body the nation. Prior to 1789, the Articles of Confederation is what held the nation together, despite the immense problems that arose from it. The document was formed in order to equally divide powers in America.
The Articles instituted a system of government that caused rifts between states in America, making the nation subject to collapse. Once America was free, the first problem they had to address was to create a new system of government and to who the most government control was going to go to. The delegates decided that they should adopt the principle known as federalism into the new government. This enables the government’s power to be divided among states and congress. It was decided that the central government would have less authority than the states.
While some Americans thought the Articles of Confederation was good since it waged in a successful war for independence, many Americans concluded that under the Articles of Confederation, there were many issues formed such as providing limited central government, developing many economic problems, and foreign powers. “The framers of the Articles of Confederation kept in mind their complaint against Britain. Parliament had passed laws the colonists considered unfair. The new states did not want to risk giving too much power to a central government far from the people”(Pearson, 206). This shows how the Articles provided a limited central government that lead many Americans to disagree with the Articles of Confederation.
The Articles of Confederation were approved on November 1777, which left many constraints on the federal government. The people were so worried about corruption, that they left the government powerless on all affairs, including foreign relations, military, Indian issues, and interstate disputes. In addition it denied Congress the power of taxation, the states were supposed to donate money to the government, which rarely occured. Each state had only one vote in Congress, but could send as many as seven delegates or as few as two, but if they divided equally on an issue the state lost its vote. There was not a President or independent executive and no veto over legislate decisions.
Slavery in the U.S. Constitution After the Unites States declared Independence from Great Britain in 1776, they greatly feared a strong national government that would be like a monarchy like the one Great Britain had. To prevent this tyrannical government from happening in the U.S., a convention of delegates from all thirteen states were brought together to create the U.S.’s first written constitution: the Articles of Confederation. This convention was called the Continental Congress. The Articles of Confederation focused on having a federal government, or a loose alliance of the states.
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 Confederation were a document seen as the “first” constitution of the United States. This document granted the new national government power to control the military, declare war, and create treaties between the states. However, the Articles had holes in it considering the government did not have the power to tax, create laws without at least nine states’ approval, or change the Articles of Confederation without a unanimous vote. This means that the country soon fell into debt and petty arguments between state, the new government had no control. It was time for a change.
DBQ Essay The United States Constitution is a document that or founding fathers made in order to replace the failing Articles of Confederation (A of C). Under the Constitution, the current government and states don’t have the problems they faced when the A of C was in action. The Constitution was created in 1788, and held an idea that the whole nation was nervous about. This idea was a strong national government, and the Federalist assured the people that this new government would work. The framers of the Constitution decided to give more power to the Federal government rather than the state governments because the A of C had many problems, there was a need for the layout of new government, rights, and laws, and there was a need for the Federal
The United States confronted many problems once they gained their independence from Great Britain. One of the biggest problems was their form of government at that time, which was stated in the Articles of Confederation. This presented many problem to the states, as stated in a document about the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution, some of the problems of the Articles of Confederation were the poor international trade, poor foreign relations, weak economy, and Shay’s Rebellion. The people, specifically the Federalists, wanted a new government because of the weakness of the government at that moment. According to many history books, the government also faced financial problems and tried to resolve them by taxing the states, because