Essay on Apush 1985 Dbq

I believe the Confederation Government was doomed to fail. For instance, their “weak Constitution,” had several money problems. One weakness was the Government did not have the power to tax. The Government lacked in funds. This left the Articles no choice but to rely on

During the era or time in which the Articles of Confederation were in place, the document had a lot of weakness; maybe too many weaknesses. These weaknesses included: It had created a struggling economy, had no Judiciary, only had a legislature (Congress), no executive (President), and gave too much power to the states or the people. A weakness that the Articles had been that the people thought that the government would help with the economy. This caused a struggling economy, and that had a lot of consequences like Continental Army marching against the government for

Two significant problems that made the Articles of Confederation a poor form of government were, the colonies couldn’t tax and there was no chief executive overseeing the colonies. After the war the colonies were in debt. One of the only ways they could pay off their debt was to tax the people in the colonies. However, the colonies had just fought in many battles against taxation so it would be unfair to be taxed after all of that. As the political cartoon shows the ship that is representing the Articles of confederation is being sunk because the colonies had no money. WIthout money the colonies couldn’t raise an army, have power over the currency, stop rebellions, or stand up to European powers. Another reason why the Articles of confederation

The biggest fault in the Articles of Confederation was that it called for a confederacy, “each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every Power, Jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled” (Articles of Confederation, 1777, p.1). This state sovereignty went against republicanism, which is more closely associated with popular sovereignty. The American people want the government’s authority to come from the representatives that they elect. This is easily seen as a crucial idea of the Constitution in its preamble, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union … do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of

independence of each state. The document guaranteed each state sovereignty and granted each state one vote in Congress. Under the Articles, Congress could not change taxes, regulate trade, or force states to fulfill their obligations. However, the Articles did allow Congress to declare war and peace, manage foreign relations, establish and command an army and navy, and issue and borrow money.

The articles of confederation were first put into place in 1777 as a temporary constitution preparing for if the colonists won the revolution against Britain. The colonists did win the war and used the Articles of confederation as their constitution for 10 years even though it was only meant to be temporary. The Articles of Confederation were effective in controlling foreign relations with other countries. However the articles of confederation were ineffective in improving the country's economy and in controlling western borders in a reasonable way. Therefore we had no stable way of improving our economy or efficient way for the federal government to control the western settlement of the colonists and the indians they angered.

Right off the bat, that shows that the Articles of Confederation was ineffective in creating a strengthened economy. Main conflicts with the economy under this document included commerce not being balanced correctly, along with tax issues. Only states had been paying taxes at the time, and even they were not forced to pay them because taxes could not be imposed by Congress. These two issues greatly affected the country’s economy. A nation’s economics are arguably the most important matter that a government has to deal with.

The Articles of Confederation provided the United States with an ineffective government from 1781 to 1789. The Articles of Confederation created a weak foundation for the early United States. The absence of an executive branch, Congress’s inability to tax and establish armed forces, and the lack of faith of the people, contributed to the feebleness of the government due to the Articles of Confederation.

The Articles of Confederation failed, because they did not give Congress and the national government enough power. The Articles of Confederation formed a war-time confederation of states, with an extremely limited central government. The U.S. had just recently fought a war to stop such an oppressive rule of a strongly based government that overpowered the local government. One of the biggest breaking points for the Articles of Confederation was when Daniel Shays and 1,000 angry farmers broke into the courthouse because the farmers couldn’t pay the loans and were threatened to take loans away from them. Some of the other problems that led the Articles of Confederation to fail was; the states didn’t act immediately, the central government was designed very weak, each state had 1 vote, the document was nearly impossible to amend, the government couldn’t collect enough taxes to fund operations, states had their own currency, and the Confederation government couldn’t help settle the Revolutionary War debts.

This may seem like a complete failure however, the Articles illuminated a clearer path to a democracy and that involves a central government. The Articles of Confederation showed that to have a successful democracy you need a strong central

A government founded on the basis of independence is defined in its ability to guarantee that it maintains an arms-length relationship with private industry and the other branches of the government. On the other hand, “successful functionality is achieved when the regulator establishes clear rules that will govern such matters as its mandate and functions, its funding, and the implementation of its authorities, and then is able to execute those rules fairly and in a timely fashion.”2 The financial impedance caused by the Articles which lacked successful functionality was focused on unpaid war debts. The congress issued paper money that proved worthless because of inflation, and the states tried the same with no avail. The problem existed in the fact that the government had no power to govern in matters of funding (tax) and could only request the states donate for national needs. Evidence of this is Document A, where the Rhode Island Assembly states that the “proposed impost is repugnant to the liberty”. In other words, the Congress collecting taxes on imported goods would be against the Articles and an impedance of liberty. This is a prime example of the lack of taxing power that the government had. Document C most aptly characterizes the unpaid war debts of the government to its people. In order to pay the soldiers for their service the Congress would need to call upon states to raise money. The government was unable to provide for the people making the

    The Articles of Confederation created a government with virtually no power - it couldn’t enforce laws, pass tax laws, fund itself, or even get the states to work together. Basically, Congress was a weak government; it had much less power than the states themselves.

The Articles of Confederations first weakness was that it did not give the federal government enough power to enforce laws. No matter the size of a state they were allowed one government a vote. There was no power to regulate trade and commerce between states, meaning that each state was allowed to regulate and determine taxes on their own trade. The national government had to rely on the states money because it had no power to tax. Each state had their own money and regulated it themselves. The Articles did not establish a strong and solid leader, which meant no president. There was also a fault in which it could take a long time to change the Articles themselves. In order to make any changes to them it required a unanimous vote.

The Articles were weak, they only focused only the states as individuals and did not focus on the country as a whole. The country was also becoming broke because the federal government did not have the power to tax the states and none of the states were willingly giving money to support the federal government. Our country need a fair and even set of rules that would benefit the entire country.

The articles failed for many reasons, starting with economic disorganization. The reasoning behind economic disorganization was because congress couldn’t regulate trade, which lead to a financial hardship of the nation. America was having issues paying off the debt after the fight for independence. Congress had no abilities to negotiate trading agreements between foreign countries, because each state has their own agenda and policies regarding import and exports. There was also no uniform system of currency either. Congress has the right to regulate forms of American currency, but articles didn’t call for a singular form of currency, meaning that the government and states would be able to produce and print their own money, making trading between