Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation were the first constitution established by the newly formed United States after it declared independence from Great Britain in 1776. The document served as a form of government for the original 13 colonies and was adopted on November 15, 1777. The primary goal behind its creation was to create a unified government that could provide common defense against foreign enemies while maintaining individual states' sovereignty over their own affairs. It provided each state with an equal vote in Congress regardless of population size or wealth; however, it did not give any real power to the federal government itself beyond establishing diplomatic relations with other nations and declaring war on behalf of all 13 colonies.
The articles also had several major flaws, which would later lead to their replacement by the US Constitution in 1788. These included its lack of executive authority (the President), judicial oversight (the Supreme Court), taxation powers, regulation enforcement capabilities, or the ability to resolve interstate disputes between states. Additionally, amendments required unanimous approval from all thirteen states before they could be enacted into law; this made changing any part of the articles virtually impossible given how different each state's interests were at times during this period in history. This resulted in very weak central governance, which ultimately led to internal struggles between states over issues such as trade policy and currency values, leading up to the ratification of the new Constitutional framework eight years later.