Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Articles Of Confederation

The Articles of Confederation was one of the first official documents of the United States. From the beginning of the American Revolution, Congress felt the need for a stronger union and a government powerful enough to defeat Great Britain. During the early years of the war this desire became a belief that the new nation must have a constitutional order appropriate to its republican character. However, after a few short years the Articles were replaced by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The Articles were a stepping stone which led to the Constitution however the Articles contained more weaknesses than strengths which forced the colonists to get rid of them and create a new document.
Prior to the Revolutionary War, many of the original

Due to the many weaknesses of the Articles the convention that was held to revise the articles ended up throwing away the Articles of Confederation and starting all over again. A weak congress was one of these weaknesses. “The Articles created a loose confederation of sovereign states and a weak central government, leaving most of the power with the state governments” (Library of Congress). The main problem with the Articles of Confederation was that it failed to give power to the federal government. The new states needed to unify under one constitution and they needed to establish a soverign central government. The Articles of Confederation was a significant step toward national unity. Most American historians said that the Articles of Confederation were insignificant because of the subsidiary position occupied by the central government. The new states needed a central government. Congress had little power to impose upon the states. They could not regulate taxes, and this led to states taxing other states. It could not enforce power upon individuals, unify foreign and domestic policies, enforce treaties, or pass navigation

“Before the Constitution could become "the supreme law of the land," it had to be ratified or approved by at least nine of the thirteen states” (Costly, 2002). The weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation introduced a great deal of interstate conflict, something that delegates, through the drafting of the Constitution, tried their best to solve. When the Founding Fathers signed the Constitution in 1787, it needed the ratification from nine states before it could go into effect. There were two sides to the Great Debate. The Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. The Federalists wanted to ratify the Constitution and the Anti-Federalists did not. One of the major issues these two parties debated concerned the inclusion of the Bill of