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The Problems With The Articles Of Confederation

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The Articles of Confederation, which were ratified in 1781, created the first form of federal government, named the Articles of Confederation. In 1787, a convention was called to revise the Articles of Confederation due to the Articles creating a weak central government, which gave states more power over the central government. Alexander Hamilton wanted a strong central government, which led him to envision Congress calling a convention to revise the Articles. The two detrimental problems of the Articles of Confederation were that the federal government had too little power and could not take action without 9/13 states approval, which is 70% of the total states. Furthermore, the other detrimental problem with the Articles of Confederation is not being able to enforce laws, they made the federal government so weak that they couldn’t even enforce laws amongst themselves. After this, the founding fathers had to make major changes, or else this wouldn’t lead the U.S. down the correct path. They wanted to rewrite the Articles of …show more content…

Given how diverse the states are, it is near impossible for them to agree to an action without some sources of conceiving and agreement. Consequently, this problem would also lead to more problems with the existing gap in the Articles of Confederation. With any rebellions or revolts, the government simply had no control over them, it was just the states that had any control over the rebellions. Reflecting back on the events of Shays’ rebellion, the government didn't have the power to enforce a national guard, so they just watched the rebellion happen and couldn’t do anything about it due to how powerless they were in their current condition. This was the last straw, the government felt powerless, so the founding fathers called for convection to make

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They soon realized a stronger form of government was needed and replaced the Articles of Confederation with the Constitution.

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The Articles of Confederation, written in 1776, were the foundation to a war-based government. At the time of the drafting this was deemed necessary, but years later, it became a burden on the States. A few select men were tasked with the editing of the Articles, to make them more sustainable to the 'modern' times of 1787. However, those men chose to drop the Articles of Confederation completely in favor of a new, improved Constitution.

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Instead of a revision though, the delegates met and decided to create a new government and ratified its guidelines, the Constitution, with only nine states’ approval. This was illegal according to the Articles of Confederation, where it stated, “nor shall any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of them [articles]; unless such alteration be agreed to in a congress of the united states, and be afterwards confirmed by the legislatures of every state.” This blatant disregard for the law and the wishes of the general public shows that the American government at that time was more tyrannical than the republic it portrayed itself as. Thomas Paine, a popular Revolutionist writer of the time, wrote on law and monarchs, “For as in absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king.” Despite Paine voicing the opinion of the public, that is not what happened when they called for a rewrite of the Articles of Confederation.

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fter the Treaty of Paris formally ended the American Revolution and recognized the United States of America as an independent nation, the Founding Fathers were made responsible for creating a government for the United States of America. They initially founded the Articles of Confederation, a weak government, out of fear of a strong, powerful one like Great Britain. Shortly after, however, the Founding Fathers noticed that the Articles of Confederation were failing. An enduring issue that connects to this time period is the enduring issue of conflict because the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation were the root cause of many conflicts between and in the states, as shown in Documents 1 and 2. Documents 1 and 2 both summarize the major flaws of the Articles of Confederation and the many conflicts they sparked.

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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 Confederation were adopted in 1781, and it is safe to say that everything went downhill from there. The government was unrestricting and ineffectual during that time and we are not allowed to blame them. Any government was needed, however, that government was not very operative. They had no provision for an Executive Branch or National Court System and were not able to force the states to do anything.

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