Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Articles Of Confederation

In 1776, the United States was in the midst of a revolution. They fought to free themselves from Britain’s tight control. The war was disorganized because the United States had no national government to manage it. Thus, in 1777, the Articles of Confederation were adopted. Despite their weaknesses, there were benefits to the Articles of Confederation because of the freedom it granted to states. Congress achieved major accomplishments under the Articles of Confederation. It successfully ended the American Revolution by signing the Treaty of Paris. Congress also made each state recognize the laws of other states. (“We the People” 97) This increased communication between the states because citizens were allowed to freely travel between

Because it had no power to control states, the Articles of Confederation were weak. The government had no money and no power to raise revenue. “Congress had no power to tax. All Congress could do was ask states to pay certain amounts to support the costs of the national government.” (98) This meant that congress could not fund war efforts or pay soldiers to fight in the American Revolution. Laws made by Congress were also commonly ignored. Since Congress left most of the power to the states, it could not force anybody to obey its laws. (98) Congress could enforce neither national nor international trade regulations. “Sometimes citizens imported goods from other countries and then refused to pay for them…Congress had no power to make laws regarding trade among states. States taxed goods going from one state to another.” (99) This caused many citizens to lose their jobs and disrupted many international trade agreements. The ineffectiveness of the Articles of Confederation made the lives of citizens more difficult and made fighting the Revolutionary War even harder for the