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Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Articles Of Confederation

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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. Some people might venture to say they weren't as bad. However, because they established no national court system, and gave most of the power to the states, most people say that the Articles of confederation were a very bad form of government. When the authors of the Articles were trying to limit the government's power, they wanted to make sure that the government couldn't control the states. This caused them to develope no national court system.This caused a lot of issues. If people were to rebel, the government would have little to no ability to stop them. George Washington talked about this matter during the Shay’s Rebellion. “We are fast verging to anarchy and confusion…” (Washington 1786). With what Washington said, It’s understood that with no root system, the government can’t stop riots. This is a dangerous thing that puts most of the public at risk. …show more content…

Without a strong central government, the states were able to refuse anything the government requested. People thought this would be beneficial, but they were proven wrong. “A strong central government, composed of elected officials, will be acting in the best interest of the people”(Document 3). If the government needed to raise money, they had to ask the states to contribute. If the states refused, the government had no way to collect this money. This happened after the Revolutionary War. The government had to pay the military and other expenses, but the states chose not to give them money. This caused America to go into

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Shays Rebellion served as the final nail in the coffin for the Articles of Confederation. Although the Articles of Confederation was America's first national document, it came with many weaknesses. One of the major weaknesses was that the federal government was too weak and therefore could not enforce laws. The Continental Congress borrowed money to fight in both the Revolutionary War and the French and Indian War therefore were in debt.

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eorge Washington's response to the Whiskey Rebellion showed that the Constitution had fixed the issues that the Articles of Confederation had. The articles of confederation had many problems. One problem was that the states had more power than Congress had. This was a problem because Congress couldn't enforce the states to pay taxes, and Congress could not draft an army which left Congress not knowing if they had an army if they went into war.

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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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There are also a lot of flaws when it came the The Articles of Confederation. For example, if they had agreed to the Article the Congress could not draft troops, the states had to contribute men for war. Another thing

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The leaders of such a large nation would be unable to stay in touch with the people that they were representing and inevitably the nation would fall to tyranny. The motivation for a central government was essential

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The Articles of confederation were the first form of government in the united states, but were too weak and

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Despite its disadvantages, the Articles of Confederation did have some benefits. One was that it allowed the states to keep a lot of power. This made the states happy, and they were more likely to work with the federal government. Another benefit was that it prevented the national government from becoming too powerful. This was an issue for the Founding Fathers, who had just fought a war to escape the tyranny of the British government.

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The government lacked a stable economy and this led to the anxiousness of the military members, filled with thoughts that they wouldn’t be getting paid. This resulted in the threat of a military coup d’etat led by Alexander Hamilton and George Washington; however, Washington opened his eyes soon enough to realize that a coup d’etat was “both dishonorable and dangerous”. Later on, tensions between merchants and European (mostly British) trade arose and this led states to impose special taxes on vessels and goods brought into the United States. The downside to this was that the state actions were not unified which caused a loophole in the taxation “creating the impression that states were involved in commercial war with each other. This was a clear indication that the national government had to step in a regulate the inter-state trading system, something they weren’t fit to do, “calling for a stronger central government in the interest of uniform trade regulations”.

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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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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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And lastly they just did not give the government enough power. When the Articles of Confederation came into play, they did not work as planned. With them, there was not really an executive branch. There also was not a judicial branch of government. All there was was a legislative branch, which was the Congress.

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The Articles of Confederation was an ill-thought out plan that was rushed into effect to tie together a nation that wanted to distinguish itself from its parent country. Without much time to plan, flaws are bound to be present. The main problem with this document is in its name. It called for a confederation among the states. This left little to no power for a central government, and the states were almost independent countries themselves.

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The United States confronted many problems once they gained their independence from Great Britain. One of the biggest problems was their form of government at that time, which was stated in the Articles of Confederation. This presented many problem to the states, as stated in a document about the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution, some of the problems of the Articles of Confederation were the poor international trade, poor foreign relations, weak economy, and Shay’s Rebellion. The people, specifically the Federalists, wanted a new government because of the weakness of the government at that moment. According to many history books, the government also faced financial problems and tried to resolve them by taxing the states, because

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Eventually, the government was able to form a militia and end the rebellion, but as we can see, having virtuous and politically involved citizens was not enough to prevent this tragedy. Without any power, the government couldn’t stop Massachusetts from creating a new and unfair law or from creating money to pay its promised war

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