Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Articles Of Confederation

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

The Articles of Confederation have strengths and weakness. I am going to start with the strengths. The first strength and the important one is having thirteen colonies united under one government that make these colonies a strong country together. Another strength is given the departments a specific defined roles for various parties to run the country more effectively. The Articles of Confederation inspired the coordination and cooperation between different states, so that’s also one of the strength of the Articles of Confederation. “It allowed the Central Government to sign treaties and peace deals with other countries giving rise to a stable neighborhood. The peace treaty with England was one such deal.” (Web) Having a stable country is most important thing to have a strong new country, and to have a stable country it should be peace between the states. And that is what the Article of Confederation accomplished. Finally, the population got increased to more than 60000 as big untied country and that could increase the economy of the country too because more people means more tax.

The Virginia Plan struck opposition among delegates from the smaller states and thus a competing plan, presented by William Patterson, known as the New Jersey Plan, or Small State Plan, came into action. This plan kept federal powers rather limited and created no new Congress. Instead, the plan enlarged some of the supremacies then held by the Continental Congress. It also called for a plural executive branch and a federal court system like the Virginia Plan. This plan was not as highly sought out as the Virginia Plan, so in turn was rejected which caused the supporters of the Virginia Plan to make amends to the smaller states. This in turn resulted in members of the Senate being elected by the state legislatures.

The Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the United States, in 1777. It was then ratified in 1781, creating a loose confederation of sovereign states, granting most power to the state governments. The Articles of Confederation also supported the direction of the Continental Army under the authority of Congress, allowing the original Thirteen British Colonies to be unified in the face of European powers. Along with the positive growth of the western land business this document brought about, there were many negative outcomes. This causes disagreement as to whether this document was successful in providing the United States with an effective government.

Four days later (May 29) the main idea of the convention started. Edmund Randolph, the governor of Virginia, gave his idea of government called the Virginia plan. The Virginia plan gave the idea of a strong government. This provided a problem for William Patterson so he proposed the New Jersey Plan. Patterson’s plan gave the government limited power in order to give the smaller states an equal vote. In September of 1787 the final compromises had been made and the new constitution was given the green

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 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 Great Compromise was important in the US because it helped create a new form of government. Both the Virginia and New Jersey plans had supporters for forming the legislative branch. The people realized that they needed to make a compromise because it would be best for their country. The Great Compromise consisted mostly of the Virginia plan but also a bit of the New Jersey plan. The Virginia plan justified for an executive, legislative, and judicial branch and also proposed a recommended legislature where officials were number of electives of officials who were elected based on population size. Some states had a with this plan because the larger wealthier states would have more votes whiler the smaller states would have a disadvantage because they had smaller populations and therefore would only be permitted one vote. In the New Jersey plan the legislative branch would have power to regulate trade and tax foreign goods but it didn’t have as much power as in the virginia

During the Revolutionary War, Congress formed our first written Constitution as a way to help strengthen our nation and provide a way for our country to be run. The Articles of Confederation had a few basic strengths in place. However, there were also some weaknesses in it as well. The Articles of Confederation had a few basic strengths. It was instrumental in uniting the original thirteen colonies under one cause.

They also argued that states would be represented in proportion to their populations. While the larger states approved, smaller states opposed the plan. After, the New Jersey plan was put forward. “It proposed a single legislature in which each state would have one vote, which would maintain the parity between small and large states” (Keene, Cornell, & O’Donnell., 2012, p. 144). This plan would allow smaller states to have the same power as larger states, much like the Articles of Confederation, but with the presence of a strong central government.

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 of Confederation have strengths and weakness. I am going to start with the strengths. The first strength and the important one is having thirteen colonies united under one government that make these colonies a strong country together. Another strength is given the departments a specific defined roles for various parties to run the country more effectively. The Articles of Confederation inspired the coordination and cooperation between different states, so that’s also one of the strength of the Articles of Confederation. “ It allowed the Central Government to sign treaties and peace deals with other countries giving rise to a stable neighborhood. The peace treaty with England was one such deal.” (Web) Having a stable country is most important thing to have a strong new country, and to have a stable country it should be peace between the states. And that is what the Article of Confederation accomplished. Finally, the population got increased to more than 60000 as big untied country and that could increase the economy of the country too because more people means more tax.

Fixing the problems of the Articles of Confederation was a lengthy series of debates, after and during the convention. There was six weakness in the Articles of Confederation, these weaknesses introduced a big deal of conflict, through the drafting of the Constitution, even if we tried the best to solve the weaknesses. When the Founding Fathers signed the Constitution in 1787, it needed ratifications from nine states before the Constitution could go into effect. This was a very difficult task and the push for this brought on endless documents, articles, and pamphlets that were both and supporting it. During the Great Debate there were two sides to it, the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists.

The Articles of Confederation didn’t have many strengths but it still had some. Congress could declare war and make peace. Congress would declare war on Great Britain thirty years later. Congress could establish an army and navy but that didn’t work out. Congress also had the power to deal with foreign countries and sign treaties. That was one of the main strengths of the Articles of Confederation because congress could establish trade relations with other countries and also make treaties. Since the U.S just fought in a war, the Articles of

Before the Constitutional Convention was called, the United States was facing a myriad of difficult situations that truly challenged the new nation. John Adams had won the fishermen of New England the right to fish off the coast of Newfoundland. However, as a result of the new country’s poor relations with Great Britain, these fishermen had lost their market in the West Indies. Furthermore, the British refused to leave their Ohio Valley forts, despite being in violation of the Paris peace treaty. The British in these forts provided Ohio Valley Indians with weapons so that they could resist American settlement. Relations between the Americans and Native Americans were quite poor, with both the Spanish and British aiding tribes in resistance and Americans settling on the Native Americans’ land. In addition to their actions regarding the Native Americans, Spain had closed the port of New Orleans to prevent American settlers from settling in or around Louisiana, which prevented supplies from reaching settlers in Kentucky and Tennessee. The individual states remained separate entities, each with their own currency and mercantile system. The states fought each