ipl-logo

Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Articles Of Confederation

225 Words1 Pages
The Articles of Confederation were passed following the American Revolution in order to establish law and order to the new country. Compared to today’s refined government, these laws came with many weaknesses such as differences in currency, unequal representation, and no enforcement of the laws. The articles stated that each state could have their own currency, meaning if two people in different states wanted to trade, or if someone was traveling to another state, they would have to exchange their currency. This would turn out to be troublesome due to the extra effort being made in currency exchange. It was like if traveling to or trading with another state was like traveling to or trading with another country in the modern day. With the Articles
Show More
Related
508 Words | 3 Pages

The Articles of Confederation was the first constitution of the United States. Although it was drafted by congress in 1777, it was not ratified by all thirteen states until 1781. Out of fear of creating a tyrannical government, the Articles of confederation actually allowed the states to be very much free and independent. Although that policy ensured a non-monarchist government, the liberation that was granted has its pros as well as its cons. From 1781 to 1789 the Articles of Confederation provided the United States with an effective government by giving the states freedom, however shortly crumbled due to the lack of stability.

Read More
774 Words | 4 Pages

The Revolutionary War had ended and the colonies successfully signed a treaty of paris with England, proclaiming their independence from Britain and establishing other terms of the treaty. No longer were the colonies divided, they had now become the United States of America and consisted of states. Throughout the colonists' "road to recovery" from Britain, and their journey to becoming a successful and powerful nation, they were faced with numerous challenges including one large one - creating a country! They needed to establish a strong but restricted central government, create a set of fair rules, laws, and regulations, and elect political leaders to represent each state and the nation as a whole, thus, the Articles of Confederation

Read More
784 Words | 4 Pages

It is 1787, and the Framers of the Constitution have a daunting decision to make. The United States of America is a free nation, but a new system of government needs to be established. The first attempt has already failed; the Articles of Confederation has proven to be too weak to govern the nation and deal with its problems. This new government should be strong enough to rule over all the States while allowing each of the States to maintain sovereignty. Eventually, the Framers decide on a federal government, which divides power between the central government and regional governments.

Read More
263 Words | 2 Pages

As it applies to the Articles of Confederation there were many weaknesses in the way it went about governing the United States. For one, the loose federation of the states was too weak to act as a foundation to be considered or act as a central government. In addition the state legislatures had too much power and in turn had the ability to influence economic issues of all kinds. This strong legislature is the same one that allowed for mob ruling and actions by debtors. The Articles of confederation were also weak because the required congress to have all 13 colonies in agreement when a new tax was to be passed.

Read More
88 Words | 1 Pages

How did the failure of the State of Franklin demonstrates the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation? First of all the, the congress was divided into 13 states and each state had one vote in congress. Congress handled many problems, like how to make the western lands made by the united states i the treaty of paris. Congress failed to solve problems between states due to taxes and boundaries. Most of the citizens felt like the government was too weak.

Read More
261 Words | 2 Pages

The weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation were: It had insufficient power to enforce treaties, no stable currency, lack of respect from other nations, no ability to regulate trade or commerce, a blatant lack of political power, a lack of unity among the states, no power to levy taxes from the people, and the nation suffered from social unrest. In spite of its shortcomings, the Second Continental Congress and the Articles of Confederation did have some notable successes. For all of its problems, it coordinated a successful war and negotiated a favorable peace treaty. The Articles of Confederation prepared the way for a better national government and left on hand agencies of government in good working order.

Read More
472 Words | 2 Pages

My Fellow Delegates it has become evident that the Articles of Confederation are not functioning for our country. Under this form of government we are too weak and have no power. Our ideals of creating a government where we do not have power to enforce laws, collect taxes, raise an army, or even regulate trade is not functioning. We cannot give our states this much power, we must have more power as a federal government. Seeing that we have a weak federal government, we have a lack of legitimacy and are unable to repay the money we borrowed to fight the Revolutionary War.

Read More
267 Words | 2 Pages

Alexander Hamiltion had wrote The Federalist 21 to express the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation. The Federalist 21 talks about many weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation. The specific weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation according to The Federalsit 21 included the following, the first weakness is the inability of the government to enforce its legistation. The government could pass laws but could not force the laws on the states. States could choice to disregard the laws without conquences from the government.

Read More
3023 Words | 13 Pages

The British monarchy’s control over the American territory had left a flavor of distrust for power in the palate of Americans. The British set the precedent for the American political system. After the colonial period, the colonies agreed that there was nothing to fear more than the government, or in this case the king. Britain over the years has held its unitary form of government, which in this case means that all governmental power resided within the hands of a single branch. In this type of system, the legislature has all the power to create and enforce legislation.

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
724 Words | 3 Pages

The Articles of Confederation was an agreement among the thirteen original states of the United States that served as the first constitution. The Articles had first been introduced by Richard Henry Lee in the Second Continental Congress. Although the Articles of Confederation has made its contributions throughout history, the Articles, however, did not last very long and had been proven inadequate from the very start. I agree with this statement based on the examples and analysis of the Constitution I will soon provide. The Articles of Confederation were written during a time when the American people feared a strong national government.

Read More
203 Words | 1 Pages

Based upon analysis of the documents and my knowledge of social studies it is my belief that the weaknesses of the articles of confederation led to a debate among the delegates over individual rights and representation which was ultimately resolved by the compromises in the U.S constitution. The main weakness of the Articles of Confederation comes from the fact that it was called a confederacy which placed all the power in the hands of the states. Back then the central government was basically like a charity, so it could only go around and asks for money not being able to get the right amount of funds to have thing like having a army or a national court system brought a lot of chaos to the state. Massachusetts was one of the main states that

Read More
453 Words | 2 Pages

In 1781,the articles of confederation were ratified. This was the first form of central government in America. America just got out of a tyranny, so they tried their best to limit the government's power. This resulted in a very weak Central Government. What two main weaknesses of the articles of confederation caused the articles to be a bad form of government.

Read More
1052 Words | 5 Pages

While seeing our neighbors to the west, suffering from incessant oppression and unmitigated tyranny, it is the obligation of this nation to ensure no tyranny can take root. However, at the same time, the government must obtain certain, limited, functions in order to ensure mutual safety, cooperation, and representation. It is evident that the Articles of Confederation lack the necessary tools to impose and regulate such tasks. At this time, it has become clear that it would be advantageous to propose a new set of laws, consistent with the nation’s philosophy, while ensuring the nation’s strength.

Read More
665 Words | 3 Pages

The Articles of Confederation The Articles of Confederation are said to be weak and because of their weakness, it is sometimes assumed that they were also unpopular. Does the weakness of the Articles directly correlate with how popular or unpopular they were in the United States? Created in 1778, the Articles of Confederation became the United States of America’s first constitution after gaining independence from Britain in 1776. The Articles established a national government under the legislation of the Continental Congress, made up of legislatures from each state.

Read More

More about Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Articles Of Confederation

Open Document