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Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Articles Of Confederation

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Can you imagine living without rules? You probably can, but rules are important and necessary for all people to live together, which is the main reason why The Articles of Confederation was created. It was the first constitution, and it’s purpose was to maintain armed forces, money, alliances, and treaties. Unfortunately, this didn’t really work as planned because it created a loose confederation and a weak central government leaving the state government the most in charge (Purdie Alexander, Articles of the Confederation and Perpetual Union, 1777.) One reason the central government was weak is because they lacked the ability to levy taxes and regulate commerce which was an issue that led to new federal laws. Who was involved in putting this
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Following the American secession from Britain in 1776, the colonies needed to implement a form of self-governance. In the early years of the Revolutionary War, the colonies drafted the Articles of Confederation, which outlined an agreement to loosely ally the states. At the time, American colonists were extremely wary of strong central governments. Thus, under the Articles, the United States maintained a weak central government with strong state governments. With this situation in place, the success of the U.S. government was mixed.

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255 Words | 2 Pages

The Articles of Confederation were adopted in 1777 by the Continental Congress and in its basic sense, acted as a place-holder government which was much like the one already in place pre-revolution. It turned out to be quite weak due to lack of power when it came to the regulation of trade, draft troops, and taxes. When suggestion of ratification to the Articles of Confederation arose, all thirteen states had to agree to do so. However, there were vast disagreements between the smaller states and the larger ones. The smaller states won the disagreements.

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190 Words | 1 Pages

Although the Articles of Confederation served a great purpose and had numerous advantages and strengths, it also contained many weaknesses with some flaws. One of the weaknesses is that this agreement could not enforce laws or have the power to tax the people of the colony. Along with this, the government could also not allow each of he states to continue to follow those laws. There was also no national army or navy, no national courts, no solid leadership or power in a position to take charge, and there was only one vote for each state no matter what the size of the state is. The main reason Americans wanted to construct a weak national government was to prevent the them from gaining too much power and allowing the government to eventually

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219 Words | 1 Pages

The Articles of Confederation was the first plan for governing the nation. It tried to help the union become a fair union. It tried to give the states as much power as possible, but with this came many weaknesses. The biggest weakness being that the national government could not force the states to obey their laws. The national government could not tax the people or enforce laws and congress did not have a strong leadership role.

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1171 Words | 5 Pages

The absence of power given to the Continental Congress debilitated the national government. The Articles enabled Congress to affirm laws, yet no ability to apply those laws. In the event that a state did not help a government law, that state can simply neglect it. Congress had no ability to force taxes or direct exchange. Without a government court framework or an official leader, there would be no real way to implement these laws.

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579 Words | 3 Pages

The Articles of the Confederation was written in the beginning, because the citizens of America feared the government. The people wanted a new system that was organized and protected its people from Wars, attacks, and most importantly a stronger and reliable economy. In my opinion, there were more weaknesses than strengthens: 1. Congress lacked the power to collect taxes. 2.

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278 Words | 2 Pages

Back when the united states of america were free from England, they needed a government the founding fathers were scared of making a government with too much power so they wrote the Articles of confederation with some flaws . The “ Articles “ were too weak and created many problems which led to a way stronger government. Two weaknesses of the Articles of confederation are that the states had way too much power. Another problem from the Article of confederation is that 9/13 must approve a law also another one is that each state has it's own currency. And two important decision were the Checks and Balances and the Great compromise.

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744 Words | 3 Pages

Before the U.S. Constitution the United States held what was known as the Articles of Confederation in regard. The articles of confederation were ratified by the continental congress on November 15,1777. This constitution served as the United States first constitution from March 1,1781 until 1789 until the new constitution took effect. The Articles of Confederation were drafted because congress agreed that a strong Government was needed to organize the states because each state had different laws. The Articles of Confederation had many advantages as well as disadvantages though not perfect, the states followed the governing body under these documents, many political and financial challenges threatened the country.

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The Articles of Confederation strengths were democratic and state dominated, and its weakness was that the federal government had no power to tax and it couldn’t unify the states constitutionally by laws. The strengths of the Articles are few. The government under the Articles of Confederation successfully waged a war for independence against Britain. Additionally, the Articles also allowed states to dominate their own states, such as taxing, regulating the trade and economy, etc. However, under the Articles of Confederation, there was no chief executive, there was no court system, there was not even a way for the central government to force the states to pay tax.

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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

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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.

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586 Words | 3 Pages

They were made to keep law and order for the colonists but the government was unstable and it ended up catastrophic. The framers of the Articles of Confederation wanted to improve upon the Constitutional Monarchy of King George III by allowing less authority to one person or governing body. While the articles were a good starting point to build a strong government, they did not take into account certain things that are necessary for it to function properly, such as law enforcement and taxes.

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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.

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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.

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417 Words | 2 Pages

The Articles of Confederation were the first steps we made toward a new government for a new nation. Things are rarely perfect on the first try. There are changes that need to be made to our new nation. I believe that we should always be changing and improving. I stand here in front of you today to propose a new amendment, the U.S. Constitution.

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