When the war finally came to an end in 1781, the economy was still suffering due to the lack of knowledge the states had on both economic and political matters. Since it was agreed upon that the nation wanted to be a democracy, the Constitution was shaped accordingly. The Articles of Confederation where written in order to establish a national government among the thirteen original colonies. There were many factors that caused of the crisis but the main reason was because of the Revolutionary war. The United States had taken on a substantial amount of debt in order for them to fund the war and the British Navy had targeted to destroy American ships, which led to a disruption in trade. The concerns that the colonists had with the Articles …show more content…
This led to the Constitution further being divided into three branches in order to maintain a balance of power within the government, which is how our current government remains today.
The states had many concerns with a strong centralized government. Many feared this type of government because they believed it would give power to the states that had a large population, which would than make smaller states have a slim chance of having any say in government matters. The colonist also didn’t want any type of government similar to a monarchy. Before they gained independence, the colonies where ruled by the British monarchy and had little say when it came to government decisions. The people were also being affected by the political and economic crisis; therefore this led them to be leery towards any type of change in government. The colonist’s fears were also justified due to the power of influential man, such as Madison, Hamilton, and Jefferson. These men had slightly different views than one another about how the government should be throughout the nation. Instead of seeing these men as those who had America’s best interest, they might of saw them as another king, which they did not want.
The fears of the colonists where justifiable due to the fact they recently gained independence from a strong government. When the colonist realized that they we indeed free, the new republican government, both state and national, had to collaborate in order to make
The colonists felt that they were under tyrannical rule at the time of their revolution which is what ignited it in the first place. The constitution guarded against tyranny in four ways which were: Federalism, separation of powers, the balance of power between large and small states and check and balances. The first guard against tyranny was Federalism which is defined as: mixed government combining a central and multiple state governments. James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay all show support of federalism in the Federalist papers which they wrote to get Americans to support the ratification of the constitution.
First, there were problems regarding governments. After so many years of neglect colonists got use to self-government. They were accustomed to making their own rules as shown by Document G, where the colonists declared their rights, “entitled to life liberty and property.” Also, colonists refused to be taxed without any representation as it is “essential to the freedom of people… that no taxes be imposed on them but with their own consent.” (Doc. B)
After the colonies won their independence from Great Britain, they had to figure out how to run their government. Colonists were wary of a strong national government following their negative experience with the out-of-touch British ruling. After having little influence over the manner in which they were governed, colonists were opposed
At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, Congress knew that they would need a stronger and powerful government to beat Britain. During the Revolutionary War, drafts of the Articles of Confederation were presented before Congress, which were then edited and revised into the final draft that was approved in November 1777. After the war, the colonies were left with a central government that was unable to levy taxes and regulate trade. In his YouTube video, “The Constitution, the Articles, and Federalism: Crash Course US History #8,” John Green states, “Both the national government and the individual state had racked up massive debt to pay for the war, and their main source of revenue became tariffs, but because Congress couldn’t impose them, states had to do it individually.” Since the central government was unable to pay for the war, the people had to pay for all the
Also, there was no proper form of government before the constitution. There were the Articles of Confederation, which did not work very much at all. They had no power in the central government and had little way of protecting the country and no way of getting income to the central government. These showed that the colonists really didn’t know what they were doing at first, they were so busy getting rid of everything British that they didn’t realize that some of the things that the British do work quite well. These Articles and the debt lead to a large problem, Shay’s Rebellion. Due to the lack of money and the lack of government there was no way to pay the soldiers that fought in the war back. A group of soldiers banded together to rebel and wreak havoc over the country. The rebellion showed that the people were frustrated and wanted their government to do something about their problems, but the government couldn’t do anything because they didn’t know what they were doing and they really couldn’t do
The dust has settled and the land was calm now, the war was over and there is now peace. The colonies, now the United States, has won the war against the British and they are now independent. A fresh new country now at peace with the world around them, is about to have an unexpected and important rebellion that will shape the image of this country and it’s government, Shay’s Rebellion. A tear in the Articles of Confederation will make an American Revolution veteran, Daniel Shays, and others, to gather debtors who want to fight, to get rid of the first and broken American constitution. The Articles of Confederation was the original U.S constitution. It was made legal by the Continental Congress with a lot debate and changes to its early document.
In late May 1787, George Washington called for a convention in order to revise the articles and speak about the Nation’s economical and political problems. This convention was attended by delegates from eleven out of the thirteen states. They decided on a government consisting of three branches: Legislative (Congress), Executive (The President) and the Judicial (Supreme Court). These branches were formed in order to prevent tyranny in the country and maintain balance in powers under the checks-and-balances. This was done by delegates to ensure that the United States would not become another through separation of powers into three different branches.
The Articles of Confederation had many problems, one being Congress not having the power to tax the states. Without the financial support of the states via taxation the government was not able to carry out their duties. This lack of revenue made it extremely hard for the government to pay its debts, draft people into the army and provide general welfare. Another issue that the nation faced with the Articles of Confederation was that it did not provide a strong judicial system. Knowing that the Government would not hand out consequences many times states would determine on their own merit when to abide current laws and when not to. Choices like theses resulted in an unorganized government. States being able to coin their own money, became
The Articles of Confederation was adopted on November 15, 1777. It was the sixth draft of the document. After declaring their independence from Britain, the thirteen states needed to create a central government. At the time, each state had its own state legislature that controlled the activity of the people within its border. There was a lot of deliberation among the states regarding the power of the central government. Most feared that the central government would become a tyranny just like Britain. The war was still ongoing and the capture of Philadelphia precipitated the decision of the delegates. By March 1, 1781 all thirteen states had ratified the documents thereby establishing the first national government of
The Articles of Confederation were ineffective in allowing for government of the United States to act as a unified country. The Articles of Confederation, came up short in many respects and treated each state as a separate country, instead of member of a unified country. For this reasons many felt it was important to write a new constitution. Many citizens were opposed to a new constitution because they felt that it would give the new government too much power over the people and they would lose their freedoms. Some people also felt that it would lead to a government that resembled a monarchy, which is exactly what the new union had fought against. However, many felt that by not giving the federal government enough power, The Articles of Confederation, afforded too much freedom to the people and they argued this could breed turmoil. Shays’ Rebellion, many argued was an example of this excess power of the people. Madison believed that an excess of liberty could be a threat to itself. As he explains, “liberty…may be endangered by the abuses of liberty as well as the abuses of power.” In 1788, the book The Federalist, a collection of 85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, was completed. The essays in The Federalist were written to gain support for the ratification of a new constitution to replace The Articles of Confederation. The essay, The Federalist No. 51, Madison explains how the rights of the people will be ensured by a system based on the
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.
Although, the war was won and there were lots of flaws in the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution started shaping the laws and government in the nation. Democracy was something that may be hard for the people to handle according to Alexander Hamilton of New York, and it would also make them confused by the challenges of running the nation. The nation was on the European economic system which it had trouble and struggled. The people got married, raised families, bought slaves, they moved west and built new homes while daily life was going on. In the 1790 's the Politian 's was faced with a lot of questions such as could the leaders pulled the nation together and was the independence temporary? They all preached liberty and equality, but they went to great lengths to safeguard both slavery and taking control of Native American lands. During Thomas Jefferson 's reign as president stabilized and the land acquired helped start an economic revolution.
The United States has governed with two constitutions, the Articles of Confederation and the US Constitution. The Articles of Confederation was the first attempt of forming a legal government from March 1, 1781 to March 4, 1789. There were many problems as the articles became to take effect so it was replaced with the US Constitution in June 21, 1788.
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
Before the Declaration of Independence was signed, colonists were treated very unfairly by their mother-countries leader, King George III. King George had not helped the 13 colonies in any way and really only used them to gain wealth for Great Britain and himself. George’s method of gaining wealth from the 13 colonies was that they could only trade to Great Britain, which did not help the 13 colonies expand as a country. Also, he heavily taxed colonists on the western hemisphere because he needed aid to pay off his former war debts. The colonists were not happy about his acts because it gave them little opportunity of expanding their wealth or fortune which, is the main idea of coming to the “New World.” This made colonists very angry now was thickening the hatred for their leader they were now just as motivated as the politicians; resulting in, plenty of change, leading to the American Revolution. Jefferson understood the colonists and he was able to express or summarize their ideas, thoughts, and motivations through the document; “We the People”. Even though the Declaration of Independence was a main contribute to the ending of the American Revolution, the war had lasted an extra five years with Britain. Britain did not want to lose the 13 colonies