Believe it or not, the Constitution was not America 's first form of government. Our country started out with the Articles of Confederation, which were...shall we say... less than perfect. They gave the states much more power than the central government, due to a pervasive fear of strong central governments. This fear stemmed from the reign of the tyrannical King George III, and the founding fathers did not want to give their country the ability to establish another monarchy. In the Articles of Confederation, the central government had no power to tax, regulate trade or commerce, enforce laws, settle disputes between states.
From the histories written by Plutarch, Polybius, and Demosthenes the founders learned of the Macedonian and Roman conquest of the Greek republics, this history taught them “the importance of a strong central government to bind the American states together in a powerful union”(85). They wanted to avoid the Greeks downfall who ended up losing their liberty due to incessant domestic bickering which “left them vulnerable to foreign invaders”(85). Their inability to unite left the Greeks open to invasion and was ultimately their downfall. The founding fathers want to avoid this and cited the Greeks flaw during the constitutional convention arguing with a strong central government that the united states would be subject to the same
Before the Articles of Confederation were written, America was in the midst of a full blown revolution against Britain. The United States needed a government to seem like they were in control and help the U.S. become a respectable, independent nation. Thus the Articles of Confederation was written and adopted as the government. The Articles of Confederation were an improvement on the weak country of America’s government. However, the articles helped to improve several aspects such as forming a new government, an economy, and dictating what happens in the territories; but they also caused the nation hardships with no power in the federal government, and the economy was tanking.
