What Are The Primary Reasons For The Articles Of Confederation Dbq

While the Articles of Confederation unified the American colonies for the first time, the individual states had a hard time allowing a central government to solely control their territory. Due to fear of an all powerful monarchy like the one they had experienced in England the colonies were wary of allowing a central government certain powers. These certain powers included control of commerce, ability to tax, and even the ability to act directly upon individual citizens of a state. While the Articles provided a loose confederation to unify the new country, they were only a temporary solution due to their obvious weaknesses in several areas. The Articles of Confederation were essentially

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 created many problems to the new government, after the Revolutionary War. It contained a weak national government and a strong state government. After the Revolutionary War, many colonists still feared Parliament and the monarchy they were once ruled by. Therefore, they created the Articles of Confederation with a weak national government and gave all the power to the states. But, many individuals did not favor the Articles of Confederation because it gave the states equal representations, no matter how big the state, and did not give the national government the ability to tax. Therefore, the ratifying of the Constitution took place. In this new Constitution, Framers wanted to create a new nation. With a separation of powers, and a new system of checks and balances between each branch. The new Constitution, expelled all of the problems within the Articles of Confederation. But, it did not include the secure liberties that the colonists had fought for. Therefore, the Bill of Rights was proposed in order to secure our blessings of liberty and to ensure that the colonists will never chant, “no taxation without representation,” ever again.

The Articles of Confederation were created in 1777, and ratified in 1781, soon after the war (American Revolution) had ended. The Articles of Confederation were created to preserve the independence of the states, giving them most of the political power. This meant that only the states had the power to tax the states, and their citizens, and did not have to comply with the government regarding taxes. Congress however was given some power. According to Digital History, Congress had the power to declare war, make alliances, sign treaties and appoint military officers.

The Articles of Confederation was ratified on March 1, 1781. It limited Congress’s influence and power over the colonies, but allowed them to manage foreign relations or Indian affairs, coin money, maintain a postal service and as a last solution, intervene with any disputes between the states. After the Revolution, Americans wanted to avoid tyrannical or monarchy government, therefore letting each state rule over themselves would eliminate having to report to higher authorities, however this caused disorganization and no one or government to lead the states. The states believed in “a firm league of friendship”, never came true as each state would compete with other to increase their population, wealth and land. However, the most important fact about the Articles of Confederation is that it harmed America more than it help it as it kept the states separated. Without a plan, goal or a common purpose, the colonies fell apart, fighting for self glorification and improving themselves, instead of helping each other. Furthermore, the Articles of Confederation failed to address on the restoration of America, such as paying war debts and when “The Requisition of 1785”, was implemented, people protested by starting riots and states capitol printed more paper money than there was gold, thus liquidating the value of the dollar. This leads to an event that caused a turning point in the restoration of American during the 18th century, “Shays Rebellion”.

After the American colonies won their freedom from Great Britain needed to create a new government. The Articles of Confederation were developed, bestowing America with its first official government. The Articles were composed of many restrictions creating an inadequate body of government. One of the main reasons the articles didn't work was from the lack of a strong central government the states received too much liberty and freedom, and on the other hand congress was weak and restricted. The government did not have enough power to govern all the states efficiently under the articles of confederation, it couldn't tax or regulate trade . From the time period when the Articles were constructed in 1781, to when they were discarded in 1789, the

The Articles of Confederation was created as a result of a young nations’ distrust for a powerful centralized government based on their experience with Great Britain, it was their first attempt at organized government in America. The states individually were given too much power, while the central power of government was very limited. Somewhat the founding fathers hoped to have the states working together as a nation for a common cause instead, states were working against each other. Currency was inconsistent and different from state to state, creating laws or ratifying the Articles was nearby impossible. There is no doubt that some good things came out of the Articles of Confederation because it did not allow Congress to regulate commerce

As territorial expansion continued, the inability of the Articles of Confederation to control even a small state like Rhode Island narrowed their chances to control the entire new nation. Rhode Island had the option “to reject the recommendation of Congress” (Doc A), seemingly giving all states the right to ignore Congress’ commands. The other way around, when discussing the American army, the Congress had “the inability… to pay their demands” (Doc C). Without the ability to fulfil a citizen’s requests, the states were left to control themselves independently. Additionally, the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation meant “that the better kind of people… will be led by the insecurity of property, the loss of confidence in their rulers, and the want of public faith and rectitude” (Doc G). The Articles of Confederation couldn’t hold any power in the states, couldn’t fulfil states’ requests, and people would lose confidence in the government’s ability to maintain the society. This absence of government connection to both the states and the people forced the farming class towards what was known as Shays’ Rebellion. Due to a lack of central government, each state could tax the crop exchange between states, as well as issue their own currency. Farmers of western Massachusetts were tired of the state lacking these important aspects, and rebelled despite the rebellion’s imminent downfall. Although seemingly unsuccessful, the rebellion proved the faults in the Articles of Confederation. Civic virtue, which was supposed to drive the new nation, was insufficient. Finally, the split between the Articles of Confederation and the states directly influenced the split in political parties. While the Federalists believed the strong central government would help secure

As Document 1 states, legislative rule under the Articles lacked a national court system as well as the power to enforce treaties, raise an army and collect taxes (Doc 2). Stemming from post-war urgency, the Articles reflected the nation’s concern about executive power; however, the lack of an executive meant the lack of effective leadership. Congress had no authority to raise an army on its own and had to requisition troops from the states. Major policy issues required the approval of nine states. Secondly, the United States had accumulated an immense amount of debt that eventually led to a financial crisis. Of course, the country had not developed a centralized government strong enough to combat this obstacle. As a result, high taxes, debt collection as well as other financial strains ravaged the people of the United States, and had a monumental negative effect on lower classes. In Massachusetts, the government refused to print its own money to cover debts, choosing instead to heavily tax its citizens. Many uprisings occurred as a result, namely Shays’ Rebellion. Led by Daniel Shays in response to high taxes and stringent economic conditions, the rebellion was a crucial argument calling for the need for a more centralized government, and urged the question of whether the governments formed under the Articles of Confederation could

Most modern historians will argue that from 1781 to 1789, the confederation period of American history, the nation experienced its most critical economic and political developments. Having just become official American states after rebellion against the royal authority of Great Britain, the nation was forced to create its own government, which proved to be completely inadequate as its foundation was lain upon a weak, basic constitution. This basic constitution was deemed the Articles of Confederation and was ratified by all states prior to the end of the Revolutionary War. The Articles created a government where Congress, being the only existing branch of government, struggled to maintain peace as disputes requiring judicial or executive rulings

The Articles of the Confederation failed because it left the national government with no real power; resulting in big government having to ask the states for funding for wars, not being able to collect taxes directly from the people but on the state to forward the information. The Constitution however divvied up the power among the states as well as the national government. The Articles of the Confederation set the foundation for the Constitution we still abide by today; however, the constitution gave power that had been bestowed upon the states back to the central or national government which allowed Congress to gather the necessary funding for wars, tax collection directly from the people rather than waiting for the states to forward the

The Articles of Confederation is a document which was created prior to the United States Constitution or the Bill of Rights. The Articles of Confederation had strengths and weaknesses just like any other official doctrine created for the foundation of the United States. Some of those weaknesses lead to fights within many states, which made people rethink the efficiency of the document and the rights recorded within it. One of the weaknesses it that Congress had no power to tax the people, or the goods that they produced. Some people may think that it is a good thing, but without the ability to tax, the United States was in debt to the countries it had borrowed money from to fund the American Revolution. One piece of

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 was created in November of 1777 and ratified in March of 1781. The Articles of Confederations purpose was to determine how the National Government would play in the newly independent United States of America. Due to the Article being formed before the Revolutionary War ended, the colonist only had one main goal with their idea of a new government, anything opposite of the Monarchy. However, this led to four major issues that would later lead to the failure of the U.S. government. The four main issues included Congress inability to raise taxes, the requirement of unison to amend the articles, Congress was unable to increase taxes, the states’ governments had no checks and balances, and the national government had little power towards foreign powers. Consequently, Shay’s rebellion in 1786-1787 brought attention to the underlying problems with the Articles of Confederation. In order to resolve these issue, the U.S. Constitution was formed in 1789.

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.