Pros And Cons Of Confederation

Although the battles at Lexington and Concord signified the start of the revolutionary war, the colonies declaration for independence wasn’t signed until 1776. From that time, each colony began to act as its own separate republic. The colonial assemblies continued to meet and several states even wrote their own constitutions. Although there was forward progress at the state level, the forming of a national government was slow and relatively unsuccessful.
The Continental Congress was the only representation of a national entity and was more of a coordinating body rather then a government. All the real power was held at the state level. Also Americans in general were unsure if they even wanted a national government. However, once the

It was a weak form of a national government and its powers of the individual states was very limited. It was, however, met with some success in the resolution of the western territories but also numerous economic and diplomatic failures. (American History, p133) The biggest accomplishment of the Confederation was resolving the controversy over the Indian occupied western land. By 1790, the lands west of the Appalachian Mountains had a population of 120,000. This was a dramatic increase from the time of the Revolutionary War. The challenge became including these new settlements into the newly form nation. A solution came in the form of two ordinances that were passed in 1784 and again in 1785.
The Ordinance of 1784 divided the territory into districts and dictated when a district could apply for statehood. Each potential stated was required to have a population of the smallest already existing state. A system of surveying and selling these lands was established with the Ordinance of 1875. Land was meticulously divided into evenly sized squares or rectangles. This method became known as the grid and is the most common form of measuring land for ownership. (American History,

Throughout its existence, it had little recognition throughout the world. The weak system of government made it unclear whether or not the Articles of Confederation was its own entity or merely a collection of several small republics. When it came time to persuade Great Britain to honor the terms of the peace treaty, the Confederation was met with little success. Britain had made several concessions including; the removal of forces from frontier posts along the Great Lakes, making restitutions to slaveowners, and allowing full access to British markets. After Great Britain refused to send a diplomatic minister to America, one was sent to Britain however no progress was ever made. (American History,