The Articles of Confederation significantly challenged the western expansion, foreign relations, and debt, as well as failed some needs of the new country (Schultz, 2009). Many Americans continued to pursue land in the west relentlessly. They slowly began populating areas that had charters in the west; thus, resulting in a jealousy and seemingly creating a competition for states with no claims to the western land. The Articles prevented the federal government from forcing states to cede their land to them, despite the potential benefits it may have provided for the new nation. Moreover, Congress established the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which formed territorial governments in the Great Lakes region and laid out a plan for future western development. The Ordinance created laws recognizing then a territory could elect a legislature and have representation in Congress, as well as when it could become an official state with …show more content…
Spain propositioned America with access to the Spanish West Indies, but eliminate access to the Mississippi River. A Congressional vote infuriated the South, because in a 7 to 2 vote, the North had voted for this proposition. However, the South would have been the ones hurt because the Mississippi River was their economical trade routes. Eventually, Spain allowed access to the Mississippi, but at a higher cost. Similarly to the issue with safeguarding the borders, was the issue with Mediterranean pirates. Since the United States could not afford to maintain a strong army or navy the American trade ships were at risk for attacks by the pirates. Equally important, but an all-encompassing problem was the debt of the new nation. Debtors wanted to be repaid, the army, rightfully so, became angered by the government’s inability to pay the soldiers monies owed, and inflation resulted in farmers’ helplessness to adapt to a new life which they were
The Articles of Confederation was the first system of government that the united states ever put into force, and is the only one they ever wrote besides the constitution. The articles was created due to a need for the United States to unite during the american revolution, and was basically a loosely bound union of states, so it was obvious that this was essentially just to semi-unite the states in order to fight the british, and they would form a more stable form of government after the fact, which they did when they wrote the constitution. I will now list the provisions of the Articles of Confederation.
Last year, our new government was formed. We agreed to what the Articles had said. It seems that now we are having issues with what we had once agreed with. In this newsletter, I will only address four of the most problematic things in the Articles of Confederation. However there are many more that will not be brought to light today.
With the United States new found independence from Great Britain, its founding fathers realize from their historical experiences that a document of law needed to be crafted and established to preserve its new found independence, while maintaining order. However, the first document crafted by the founding fathers, the Articles of Confederation, did preserve the country new found independence but it did not maintain order. The Articles of Confederation described by many founding fathers to be a document that was crafted to satisfy needs of every state for its ratification, even when the document did not present a responsible democracy. The Articles of Confederation granted all national powers to the congress; however, it allowed each state
The Articles of Confederation was first written in 1777. It was passed by the Confederation of Congress. Congress decided that they needed a firm government to organize the states as a whole. At least that was their primary goal. Since each state had separates rules. The Articles of Confederation was later ratified by each state in 1781. It was “America’s first federal constitution” (Keene 138). The confederation had a few strengths but many weaknesses. The nation faced many economic and political issues that lead people to controversy.
The Founding fathers did not want to create a government with too much power so they created the Articles of Confederation. This government turned out to be a failure. In 1787, the founding fathers met again to create a new framework of government. Most people feared creating a government that was too strong. To create a new government there had to be many compromises, the U.S. Constitution is the result of these compromises reached in Philadelphia in 1787. The Articles of Confederation were too weak and created many problems which led to a stronger National government. Two weaknesses of the Articles of confederation were that Congress did not have the power to tax. Another problem was that the states had most of the power and the National Government had little power. Two decisions made by the
The Articles of Confederation were developed after the Revolutionary War, and were a good idea to help set standards for America. However, they had some major problems that needed to be solved in order for America to become a strong nation. After these problems were addressed the Constitution was developed.
The topic of this paper is the Constitution. The paper will cover the weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation, which was addressed in the Constitution. The paper will cover the how the Constitution addressed the complaints in the Declaration of Independence. Another topic of the paper will be the Great Compromise and how the representation of states in Congress was determined. Finally, the paper will view the treatment of slaves for the purpose of representation and the effects thereof.
The most significant issues that the United States had under the Articles of Confederation were: “managing the western expansion, foreign relations, and debt.” The first significant issue was with the western expansion as Americans relocated to the Nashville, western Pennsylvania, and Kentucky areas in mass numbers in the 1780s. The result of this meant that the areas were enhanced greatly that had western charters. At the time, the northern and southern areas (in the Appalachian Mountains and Mississippi River) had specific boundaries based on the original colonized charters which meant that the western area was the Pacific Ocean. The states that did not have part of the western area resented the condition and as a result, Maryland protested by not approving the Articles of Confederation unless the state of Virginia yielded its western land to the federal government which they did in 1784. However, their yielding was not without strings attached as they demanded that they be allowed to keep a small portion of the land reserve for their own use as a part of the deal which Congress had no choice but to accept. Eighteen years later in 1802, every state had yielded their western land to the federal government.
This document was written in the 18th century specifically during the Federalist Era. It was written 18 years after America won independence from England on July 4, 1776. This lead to the creation of the “Articles of Confederation” which were made primarily for the people because they feared central government having all power. Then at The Annapolis Convention (1786) is where the groundworks of “The U.S. Constitution” were discussed to replace the “Articles of Confederation”.
Speaking against the ratification of the Constitution, Patrick Henry says, "If a wrong step be now made, the republics may be lost forever. If this new government will not come up to the expectation of the people...their liberty will be lost and tyranny must and will rise..." The leaders of the country created the U.S. Constitution due to an immense dissatisfaction with the system of government stated in the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation support a government in which there is only one branch, but it's power would be limited in order to protect the people's liberty and rights. Although the Articles of Confederation establish a better system of government than when the states were under British rule, some weaknesses were found and amended in a new document called the United States
The Articles of Confederation served as the written document that established the functions of the national government of the United States after it declared independence from Great Britain. Although, it established a weak central government, it contributed to U.S principles because The Articles of Confederation were the basis of the first government of the United States of America. The Articles were essentially the “training wheels” of the government; it was a learning point to create something much greater which became the Constitution. The problems that this weak document created, combined with the Confederation government’s ineffectual response to Shays’ Rebellion, convinced national leaders that a more powerful central government was necessary.
"Throughout the years the constitution and the laws have made a tremendous impact in society. White men were privileged with all their rights since they were born. Women and men of color however were not, and they had to fight for their rights throughout the years. The Articles of confederation showed how the states had more power than the government did. In document two it states, “ urging to reject conservative attempts to repeal a law that set in motion an end to slavery.†(E,126) This shows how African American’s had to wait many years for laws to pass and give them freedom. They had the same rights as the White men after the 13th,14th, and 15th amendments were passed. Women had to wait longer and finally got their right to vote when
Three groups took advantage of this: the English, the Spanish, and the Pirates. Even though America won their independence, Great Britain still had their forts built which included their fur trades. The United States wanted the forts taken down, but they did not have the man power to do it. The Spanish controlled the entrance to the Mississippi river which gave them access to close it off to others. In 1784 Spain gave a proposal to the United States that said Spain would give the United States access to the Spanish West Indies. This would naturally help American traders. This would need nine votes from Congress and they only got seven. They knew the ones that did not vote for it were from the Northern states… This caused the South to become very angry due to them their economic state would suffer due to the Mississippi river being closed off to them. The Spanish finally opened it back up, but charged them responsibilities to American peoples that
There were many arguments over how this new territory would be divided, however, the Articles of Confederation were effective in solving this issue. Inside this document, two laws were made to help decide how the western lands would be distributed. The first law was The Land Ordinance of 1785, which built the foundation for the country’s land policy. This ordinance stated that the newly-gained land should be sold to help pay the new nation’s debt from war The second law was the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. In this ordinance, it was stated that the northwestern lands would be sold to individuals and would be run by the national government until the population reached 60,000 people, which made it eligible to become a new state.
The assertion that the creation of the Northwest Territory was one of only successful outcomes of the United States of America under the Articles of Confederation is very true. The Northwest Ordinance, or the Ordinance of 1787, was implemented by the Congress of the Confederation of the States on July 13, 1787. The Ordinance provided for a more unified and structured territory. The creation of the territory created the framework for the states that would eventually become a part of the Union. The Ordinance also provided a formal legislature system with governors and judges until the territory contained a minimum of 5,000 citizens, white males.