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The Articles Of Confederation's First Weaknesses Of The Philadelphia Convention

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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 delegates at the Philadelphia convention argued mainly about three things: representation in states, slavery, and the presidential election. If the delegates from the convention had not come to terms with the three arguments, the new nation may have fallen. The three compromises made at the convention were: the Great Compromise, the three-fifths compromise, and the Electoral College. …show more content…

The United States feared that Spain’s colonies of Cuba and Puerto Rico would be captured by France or Britain. Once the Pyrenees was crossed by the French, to help put down the early sightings of rebellion against the Spanish monarch, Britain was afraid that the French and Spanish had formed some sort of alliance and wanted to reclaim Latin-American colonies. At first chance the British Foreign Minister George Canning discussed the idea with American minister Richard Rush, He suggested an alliance opposing the French and Spanish union. Rush sent Monroe word, who in turn asked advice from Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Jefferson advised that if European affairs had made their way into the western hemisphere it would not be good, but staying out of European affairs would be best for the

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