ipl-logo

How Did The Articles Of Confederation Give More Power To The Government Than The States

677 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Compare contrast articles of confederation and constitution

When the United States of America began to fight the Revolutionary War in 1775, they would need a governing body to run the new country. However, seeing as they had just escaped from a tyrannical government under England, the Articles of Confederation gave the states a very large amount of power so that they would not have the same problem again. However, although this government gave many states what they wanted, it was not strong enough to run a country. So, when writing a new Constitution the founding fathers gave more power to the federal government than the states because of the former government. The Articles of Confederation had many things that it could not do, things that were needed in order to have a strong central government. For example, the federal government could decide to wage war, however they had no national army to fight and the states were responsible to gather their own militias. A good example of this is Shays Rebellion. Led by Daniel Shays- a Massachusetts farmer and a war veteran- a group of farmers went to the Springfield Arsenal as …show more content…

According to the map “Ratification of the Federal Constitution, 1787-1790,” a large amount of the states had a federalist majority, meaning that they supported the Constitution. Most of the Federalists were rich men who were large landowners, judges, lawyers, leading clergymen and merchants. Led by Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, James Madison, and George Washington, federalists “believed the national government was too wear under the Articles of Confederation” and wanted a strong federal government (Document 3). However, the antifederalists disagreed with the Constitution. They “feared strong national government would lead to tyranny” and wanted strong state governments (Document 3). Led by Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, and Patrick Henry, the antifederalists were mainly supported by small farmers, small landowners, and

Show More
Related
959 Words | 4 Pages

Due to the Constitution allowing the states to be governed as a whole, it caused national unity as it also allowed national debt to start being payed off from the Revolutionary war from the states as a whole as opposed to letting states tax each other. Another similarity between these two documents was that states could not go alone into a war and had to depend on themselves as well as other states to contribute forces. The Articles of Confederation didn’t allow congress to deal with troops but states had that power instead. However, in the Constitution, congress dealt with troops

Read More
182 Words | 1 Pages

The Articles of Confederation was one of the first forms of the Constitution established, but it was replaced with the current Constitution because it failed to establish unity. The Articles of Confederation was a more simple and weak version of the Constitution. In the Articles of Confederation, all power was given to the state such as collecting taxes while congress had close to no power. Each state had more power than congress and the people combined. The AOC failed to establish laws limiting citizens to their rights.

Read More
754 Words | 4 Pages

With the United States gaining independence from Great Britain, Congress realized that a document of law needed to be established to maintain its newfound freedom. The Articles of Confederation devised a loose union of the states and set up a federal government with insufficient powers. Pivotal matters as defense, public finance, and trade, the federal government was in favor of the state legislatures. Twenty-one years the United States was ruled by the Articles until they adopted the U.S. Constitution in 1787. This made it so that the nation was rules by a sovereign national government, but also the states were sovereign as well.

Read More
200 Words | 1 Pages

The articles of confederation has many strengths but also some weaknesses, one strength is that it gave congress the power to deal with foreign affairs and authority to declare war, make peace, alliances, and sign treaties. This was a huge step because now a designated person has the control to make big decisions such as these. It also encouraged coordination and cooperation between different states and they can settle disputes between the states. This ultimately led to less conflict amongst the states in the United States and gave further attention to the conflict going on out of the U.S. A weakness that was not resolved by the Articles of Confederation is they have no power to regulate commerce or trade between the states; each state could

Read More
901 Words | 4 Pages

Federalism Compare state sovereignty under the Articles of Confederation and under the Constitution. States were sovereign under the Articles of the Confederation although they shared no power under the constitution. It is the states that were supreme under the Articles of Confederation that led to the creation of a government that had a weaker national government. The executive arm of the government was not independent, and there were no federal courts since the state courts enacted all the laws (Brest, p.58). Also, neither did the Congress have the taxing power nor did it have the power to control interstate or foreign commerce.

Read More
454 Words | 2 Pages

The Articles of Confederation made up America’s first constitution. This constitution was hastily and poorly made and solved the problem of a lack of government in America. The Articles were designed to limit the government’s power over the citizens. The Articles of Confederation also did not include anything about an individual or a president to guide the country. This was because of the colonists’ past experience with Britain’s king and him having too much power over the people.

Read More
530 Words | 3 Pages

One of these rough patches was the Articles of Confederation, which taught us that a balance of power is of great importance. We abandoned the Articles of Confederation and adopted a new Constitution because of State powers, and lack of Congressional powers. The fear of a Central Government like Great Britain led The United States away from having such a strong Central Government. So the States were given autonomy to make most decisions & have many powers under early American Government.

Read More
778 Words | 4 Pages

The Articles of the Confederation was the first government constitution that the United States used, and, although there were strength like the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, there were major weaknesses of the Articles of the Confederation like the following: requiring 9 out of the 13 colonial votes from the representatives from different states to pass a law; having no executive and judicial branch; and the federal government being unable to impose tax revenue onto the states. Such flaws would eventually lead to the Constitution and the repeal of the articles, for the Constitution was a measure to fix the problems of the articles with a stronger government that allowed them to impose taxes and and implement new laws for a more effective government.

Read More
666 Words | 3 Pages

Before the constitution the states and the government based the way, they lived using the Articles of Confederation. Congress was in shambles and we owed a massive debt, which led to a rebellion later on. To keep the new nation in check they created a constitution. With the constitution they created federalism or shared power between the states and the government, they created this to make sure the government or states don't overpower on another. The Federal system was made up of three types of government powers, these are reserved, enumerated, and concurrent powers.

Read More
784 Words | 4 Pages

They believed that this government could provide the stability and security against violent outrages. The foil of these people were the Antifederalist. The Antifederalists offered three objections: that the Congress had conspired under a “veil of mystery” to create a new form of government, that a strong national government would destroy states’ rights, and that the new system of government resembled and monarchy and that violated the principle of liberty that guided the American Revolution. They also pointed that the voters will not directly

Read More
553 Words | 3 Pages

Most of the support came from inland farmers and workers. Combined everyone feared a strong national government. The a Anti-Federalists were angry because they believed the Constitution was created secretly, without any ones input. They claimed it was extralegal, not sanctioned by law.

Read More
399 Words | 2 Pages

The Articles of Confederation had many major limitations such as no power to enforce laws and the inability to maintain a

Read More
1012 Words | 5 Pages

These people are known as federalists and antifederalists. The federalists are the people that support the constitution. These people believe that the constitution is the best way for the country to prosper. It is the only way to make sure this country stays the way it is. On the other side of the argument are the anti-federalists.

Read More
603 Words | 3 Pages

The Articles of Confederation were a major improvement over the past government of England, in which the power only belongs to a few people, the king and parliament. The Articles of Confederation allowed each individual state to have its own power. Congress could not require any state to pay taxes, nor could they require to build a national army. Preventing tyranny was a major idea and a major goal that the Articles of Confederation produced. One other improvement that the Articles of Confederation instituted was the idea of not only reducing the power of the king, but increasing the power of the people.

Read More
316 Words | 2 Pages

The Articles of Confederation were the first set of guidelines for the government in America that was ratified in 1781. The Articles of Confederation limited the powers of the government, gave most of the control to each individual state, did not require a president, and was quickly found to be ineffective. It left America at risk to be invaded by other countries or to suffer from economic problems. If another country wanted to conduct business in America, they had to deal with each state individually. Any amendment required unanimous approval (Evans & Michaud, 2015).

Read More

More about How Did The Articles Of Confederation Give More Power To The Government Than The States

Open Document