Before the Constitution, the United States had the Articles of Confederation. This pre-constitutional government was based off the experiences the colonists had with the King of England. Because of the tyrant nature of the king, the colonists built a government with Strong states, but a weak central government. This resulted in numerous flaws throughout the nation, for example, the government could tax the people or raise an army. Theses flaws also created a rift within the nation forming two parties: the Federalists and the Anti Federalist. It took a few compromises for the two parties to agree on a new constitution. Firstly, there was many problems with the Articles of Confederation. One major problem was the states had too much power (Document 2). The central was too weak to control the states, and in some ways this is exactly what the colonists wanted. But, because the national government was so weak it could not collect taxes to run the nation. Also, because the nation had no power over taxes, it could not raise an army. Without an army, the nation had no means of defense and could not fend off attacks from neighboring nations. Another problem the Articles of Confederation had was the lack of a national court …show more content…
The Federalists favored a strong central government and a subordinate state government. They also trusted that a well-educated group of elected officials would act in the best interest of the nation (Document 3). However the Anti Federalists favored the Articles of Confederation, and the weak central government that came with them. Because of their experiences with the brutal King of England, the colonists feared the national government would become too powerful and begin discrediting the individual rights of the colonists. Although the Federalists succeeded in ratifying the Constitution, a Bill of Rights was implemented as a safeguard against