Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Articles Of Confederation

Created on November 15, 1777 and ratified by the first 13 colonies on March 1, 1781, the articles of confederation is known for being the first constitution of the united states. “The constitution provides a division of powers, meaning it assigns certain powers to the national government and reserves others for the states.” (crouse, slide 4) The constitution is needed because if we didn't have it the government would be weak and would most likely have no power. Framers of the constitution chose a system of government on a territorial basis, between a central government and several states. “ the framers were worried about the government being too powerful because; government power inevitably poses a threat to individual liberty. Therefore the

The Article of Confederation had several flaws that were addressed during the Annapolis Convention of 1776. The main issues were mostly economic, and military based but there were other issues like not being able to enact laws that motivated a change of The Articles of Confederation. Under the Articles of Confederation, the individual states had entirely too much power and it was extremely difficult for the national government to even raise money mainly because congress could not compel the states to give money because they couldn't legally collect taxes and the states weren't exactly willingly giving money to the government. Another issue the national government had with the Article of Confederation is that it was also highly difficult to

On November, 1777, the Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, which was the first constitution of the United States. The Articles of Confederation provided for a national government much like the one already in place before independence. Its powers expanded to give it authority to conduct wars and foreign relations and to appropriate, borrow and issue money (McGraw-Hill 2015). However, the Articles of Confederation had several weaknesses. It did not have the power to regulate trade or levy taxes directly on the people.

The Articles were horrendous and below are a percentage of the reasons why. The articles of Confederation had numerous flaws and shortcomings. The Articles had issues with Currency, Interstate Commerce, Foreign Trade, and Foreign Affairs. Drafted amid the years 1776 and 1777, while the colonists were still battling for independence, the Articles of Confederation made a weak national government with a large portion of the legislative forces held by the states. The Articles gave no division of powers.

The Articles of Confederation was the nation's governing document that was adopted in 1781. It was written to give the American people a government that had structure and organization. It had one major problem which gave too much power to the states and not enough power to Congress. In response, the Constitution of 1787 was written to expand federal power over the states.

The Article of Confederation was our first form of government. The Article of Confederation had a couple of weaknesses, the federal government could not tax and there was no executive branch leader. The weaknesses lead to the Continental Convention. The government want to fix these weaknesses. The Federalist believed in a strong central government with most of the power giving the states little power and the Anti- Federalist believed in a weak central government and believed that the states should have more power. The Anti-federalist at the convention knew they were losing the battle for a weak government so they ask for the bill of rights to be added into the constitution, in order to protect the american citizens rights. To balance

The Articles of Confederation lacked the control of the nation it needed and as a result did not receive the respect of the people. It lacked a judicial and executive branch which are important for determining the constitutionality of laws and carrying them out. Since the Articles of Confederation lacked these factors it was difficult for them to enact laws. Some of the problems which they faced included the different currency being used throughout the country. This was a major difficult in trade because each currency had a difficult value and therefore a different price would be

The Constitution of the United States of America was framed in part by The Articles of

The Articles of Confederation established the first national government of the United States after it declared independence from England. The American Revolution heavily influenced this document, as the American people refused to have another tyrant rule their country. From 1781 to 1789 the Articles of Confederation provided the United States with an ineffective government because of its lack of power to tax, raise an army, or regulate trade; however, it redeemed itself with the creation of the land ordinances of 1785 and 1787, and keeping the states united after the American Revolution.

They were a few shortcomings and advantages in the new government under the Articles of Confederation I would like to discuss. First of all the weaknesses that articles of confederation have gone through were certain people in the congress lacked leadership, could not tax, there militia or military was small, and one vote per state. The advantages they had were that they could borrow money and make peace also sign treaties. There were several sentiments and ideas. The “new vision want to make political authority legitimate and secure liberty” (Wilson, 2008, p.20). The system of government was established by articles to respect liberties given to them. Founding fathers replaced the document because certain states used the document for different

The Articles of Confederation was the United State’s first constitution, it was written in an effort to unite the states after the American Revolution and served as a blueprint for the modern constitution. In order for the Articles to become official, they had to be approved by all thirteen colonies. Although Congress sent the Articles of Confederation to the states around the end of 1777 to become ratified, they were not officially adopted until March 1, 1781. Under these Articles, the states remained sovereign and independent, with Congress serving as the last resort on appeal of disputes. The American people feared a strong national government and as a result of this, the Articles of Confederation were specifically designed to be weak in the sense that each state maintains its own sovereignty and all rights to govern themselves, with the except of the rights exclusively granted to Congress. Since the Articles lacked many necessary components to keep a nation properly structured, they were eventually revised into the constitution we recognize today. Although, the Articles of Confederation seemed as though it only contained weaknesses, within the document, many strengths and accomplishments were made. Overall, the Articles of Confederation were proven to be both efficient and non-efficient during the time period they were in effect.

The Articles of Confederation, Adopted by Congress on November 15, 1777, for all practical purposes was the United States’ first Constitution. Created to establish a bond between the newly formed states, “...the Articles purposely established a "constitution" that vested the largest share of power to the individual states” (Early America). This ensured that the government did not have the majority of power. “...the Articles denied Congress the power to collect taxes, regulate interstate commerce and enforce laws...allowing the states retained their "sovereignty, freedom and independence” (Early

The national government of the United States had many challenges under the Articles of Confederation. The Articles caused money problems and the most essential detail, a weak government. This also caused America conflicts among each of the 13 states. These problems greatly impacted the United States and it’s government as well.

One of the main disadvantages of the Articles of Confederation was that it encouraged a weak central government. Because nine out of thirteen states had to agree upon a law in order for it to be established, very few laws were passed. Amendments of the Articles of Confederation were never passed because the vote had to be unanimous. Not many decisions were made and the Congress generally only had the power to make treaties, deal with foreign affairs, and declare war. The Articles of Confederation read, “Each state shall contain its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right…” (Article II) The states had the most power and the Congress very rarely made decisions that affected the internal affairs of the states or country. There was only one house of Congress where each state only had one vote. This did not allow the bigger states with a greater population to have an advantage over the smaller states, which one could perceive as unfair in certain circumstances. Also, there was no judicial branch, which meant that if a case was not solved on a state level, it had nowhere to go. Fundamentally, the states held the most power. The lack of power within the Congress led to economic crisis.

They did not trust strong governments, so the central government very little power (Murphy). There was no court system given to the national government so the states were in charge of it all, which meant complaints could not be filed against them (Brackemyre). One of the only powers the national government had was to declare war but they were not allowed to raise an army to fight it and it lacked a chief executive to conduct foreign affairs. The United States also had an ineffective legislative under the Articles of Confederation. Amendments that they wanted to be passed needed to be vote on unanimously and there had to be a nine out of thirteen vote to pass a law (Kelly). Each state also had only one despite their population. Under the Articles, the government did not have a stable economic system, lacked key central leadership and had an inefficient legislature.