...Article of Confederation The Articles of Confederation was known for the first written constitution of the United States. The plan of government created by the Articles of Confederation had strengths and weaknesses. It shows to have more weaknesses than strength. The weaknesses of the Article of Confederation included the fact that every state was in a position to follow any laws that were desired. The Articles of Confederation did little to promote colonial unity; therefore, it shows to have some weakness, strength and also the support of the anti-federalists and federalist debate. The Articles of Confederation shows to have more weakness than strength. The most common weakness in the Article of Confederation was the lack of power that was given to the Continental Congress strangled the federal government. The Articles of Confederation gave Congress the power to pass laws but no power to enforce those laws. If the state did not support a federal law that state could simply ignore it. The Article of Confederation had no power to levy taxes or regulate trade....
Words: 680 - Pages: 3
...“America the great” is a line known by all Americans. To some, it rings truthfully-- after all, America couldn't have ever screwed up too badly, right? Well, if one would go back to when the nation was young and had just formed, one would see its 'government’ ruled by the Articles of Confederation. The Articles were the young nation’s first attempt at a constitution. Obviously, as we now have a new constitution, something was wrong with it. The Articles of Confederation had many weaknesses, but the inability to change it without all thirteen of the states’ approvals ranks as the worst weakness in all of it. Unfortunately, not many Americans have the knowledge of the nation's weak first constitution. The constitution itself was quite...
Words: 411 - Pages: 2
...The three weaknesses that we had for the articles of confederation is taxes, the judicial and the excitative branch, and military. The articles of confederation was to keep everything in place, but that didn’t work because we had some weaknesses. The first weakness was taxes, due to Shays' rebellion protesters of Massachusetts, were furious because they were charged the most for taxes. Massachusetts was already had an economics problem, and threating to take their farms away for not paying, and being in debt. Also in other states this was happening too. Second was the judicial and the excitative branches, in order for us to have an excitative branch we needed a president and at the time we didn’t have one, so we didn't have anyone to make...
Words: 252 - Pages: 2
...The Articles of Confederation was not very successful due to the absence of a solid national administration, but it was halfway through the Revolutionary War before any work took place to start the Articles. There were so many flaws that is caused weaknesses to a point where the government was not even able to pay for debts or support the military in case of new war. Although the nation tried to secure a loan, it also was not successful. Prior to the Articles of Confederation, there was not a written document that established the functions of the national government. The Revolutionary War brought about the change in the Federal Government, and addressed the states’ rights and responsibilities. The Continental Congress had no idea that a law was not in place to duplicate currency, establish trade and what to do about bills that were not paid. As a result of this notice by the colonists, the...
Words: 469 - Pages: 2
...The Articles of Confederation The Articles of Confederation was basically the alpha version of the Constitution of United States of America. So, it would have a lot of similarities to the constitution of the United States of America and some differences as well. Which have been reworked or taken out completely in the Constitution of United States of America. One of the major strengths that the Articles of Confederation had was that it was had the sole power of dealing with foreign affairs, declaring wars on other nations or people, and was able to make peace or alliances. major power was that they were the only one able to print money. A minor power would be allowing the formation of new states when they had a population of 20,000 which they did after the revolutionary war. Another power was they were the only people able to control the congressional direction of the Continental Army this was taken out in the constitution because...
Words: 505 - Pages: 3
...The Articles did have notable successes. However, its eventual replacement by the Constitution, suggests its strengths were outweighed by its weakness. Under the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the Confederated Congress allowed settlements in Northwestern Territories to establish a structured blueprint for self-governance and admission to the Confederation with Ohio becoming the first state formed under it. In addition, the ordinance provided for protection of civil liberties, promotion of education, and the prohibition of slavery. Also, under the Articles of Confederation, Congress negotiated the Treaty of Paris (1783), which ended the war with Great Britain and established America’s independence. Some fundamental weaknesses of the Articles...
Words: 347 - Pages: 2
...As America’s first constitution, the Articles of Confederations has strengths and weaknesses. In the Articles of Confederation, the Congress could request states to pay taxes. There is also no system of federal courts in this constitution. There is no provision to regulate the trade from one state to another. The President is not vested with executive power. The President only presides over Congress. The votes needed in order to amend the Articles require a 13-13 vote. Regardless of the size, each state only receives one vote. Furthermore, raising an army depends on states and the Congress could not raise troops. In the field of interstate commerce, the trade between states has no control. When there are disputes between states, the system...
Words: 373 - Pages: 2
...Strengths: set the legislative body and congress as the highest power, congress had the power to declare war, assign treaties, entertain forgoing relations and operate post offices. Weaknesses: government that was created was really weak, amendments require unanimous approval, gov't couldn't enforce laws, no power to levy taxes, no national army or navy, no system of courts, each state could issue its own paper money (which was used as IOU's), states could set tariffs on trade in between states, one vote was given for each state no matter the size of its population. Under the Articles of Confederation the government was nearly powerless, because of this powerlessness it caused for economic recession, a larger national debt, shay's rebellion...
Words: 271 - Pages: 2
...The Articles of Confederation The Articles of Confederation were the first attempt at forming a unified government after the American Revolution. The Articles of Confederation were passed in 1777, went formally endorsed in 1981 after got ratified by 13 states and were replaced with the US Constitution at the Constitutional Convention in 1988. Under the Articles, the first government had its strength and obtained a few respectful achievements such as negotiated a treaty to end the Revolutionary War with the Treaty of Paris, formed a unified nation with a central government, and passed the Northwest Ordinance. However, it worked good in dealing with the war, but it completely failed in the effort to unite and improve the U.S at peacetime. The...
Words: 1542 - Pages: 7
...The lost State of Franklin officially ceased to exist in June 1789. The failure of the state of Franklin demonstrates the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation because many of the reasons that the Articles of Confederation failed is why the state of Franklin failed. Such as them not paying taxes and not having any laws. Another way that they failed the same way is because both were destroyed by the new United States Constitution.There are many ways that the State of Franklin’s failures demonstrate the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation. According to the text the Articles of Confederation and the State of Franklin failed because they both could not collect taxes. Some evidence of this is that in the text it says “ The state of...
Words: 295 - Pages: 2
...Historical Essay #1: Confederation and Constitution Anthony Snow DeVry University 08/01/2015 HISTORICAL ESSAY #1: CONFEDERATION AND CONSTITUTION As with anything in this world there are always strengths and weaknesses when people are comparing two different items, as no one item can be a perfect solution; there are always compromises. The same happens when we are comparing the Articles of Confederation and the New Constitution of 1787. Both of theses two solutions each have their own strengths and weaknesses. First we have the Articles of Confederation that when written gave each state a lot of individual powers, and because of this was one of the main reasons for the New Constitution, and I want to show how these two solutions are different, and how the New Constitution uses some of the same concepts that make up the Articles of Constitution. I would first like to take a look at the Articles of Confederation, and explore some of the strengths and weaknesses that came as a result of adopting it. The Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation on November 15, 1777. One of the main weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation was that although it was able to produce a confederation of sovereign states, it was also responsible for weakening the central government, as the Articles of Confederation gave almost all of the power to the individual state governments. With the individual state gaining more power, the national government found it extremely difficult...
Words: 1174 - Pages: 5
...The Article of Confederation was a scripted arrangement, which was approved by the thirteen original states of the United States. The Article of Confederation contains procedures as to how the United States government was thought to operate. The Article of Confederation is sometimes called Articles; it was created in November 1777 and approved by thirteen original states in March 1781 (Cheek, 2016). The Founding Fathers of the United States subjected a severe criticism a few years after the approval of The Article of Confederation. This led to a decision for the Article of Confederation to be altered to satisfy the nation. The delegates from the thirteen states met in Philadelphia in May 1787 to review the Article of Confederation. In concluding, the delegation members made a common decision that reworking the whole Constitution was better than reviewing the current Article of Confederation (Cheek, 2016). The United States Constitution is reflected to be the supreme law in the United States of America today. It specifies the standards for the association of the United States government. The foundation of the new constitution was created because of the several complications with the Articles. The...
Words: 460 - Pages: 2
...Articles of Confederation. Describe what they were and how they came about and what they were designed to address in the new American government. Why did they require replacement? Was the process of their replacement controversial? Was it necessary that the Articles were replace? The Articles of Confederation served as the first constitution of the US, it written on November 15, 1777 and formally ratified in 1781. The articles created a platform for a new government without an association between 13 states, this original constitution did not have a central government to oversee the workings of the states as a whole and instead operated on a “firm league of friendship”. The articles were known as a confederation since the system gave...
Words: 699 - Pages: 3
...Great Compromise, it had addressed the weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation, and it addressed the complaints in the Declaration of Independence The Great Compromise was an agreement amongst the nations with the Connetticut delegates Roger Sherman and Oliver Elsworth. The delegates had decided that the American government would have two houses in Congress: The senate where each state has two Senators, and the House of Representatives where each state has a number of Representatives based on population,in other words, a bicameral system. The Great Compromise provided that membership in the House of Representatives would be in proportion to the states population and members would be elected by all of the voters in the state. while the membership of Senates would be equal. The Articles of Confederation were the original document in the United States that had served as the Supreme law and sought to combine the disparate colonies under a single governmental entity until the Constitution had replaced The Articles of Confederation completely. Established during the revolutionary war, The strong central government were afraid that their individual needs would be ignored by the national government. The Articles developed a constitution on purpose because it would provide poser to the individual states. Instead of having an executive and judicial branches of government, The articles had their "Independence" The Articles of Confederation did not have enough...
Words: 837 - Pages: 4
...When the founding fathers needed a “Supreme Law of the Land” they first came up with the Articles of Confederation which had a multiplicity of flaws, such as its inability to enforce laws. But because of these flaws and inabilities, they decided to write the U.S Constitution. The U.S Constitution had a much more specified set of laws and regulations. When it comes to the Articles of Confederation, it did have some good things about it such as creating a peace treaty with Great Britain, it had many flaws. Although both of these important documents helped make our government what it is today, there are also many differences between the two. Both of these documents shaped what our government is today. They both do have many differences but they also have some similarities. Such as they both list congresses rights and duties. Also they both specify that only the government can send and receive ambassadors, not the states. Both had lots of power over the United States, and listed many rules that helped control the people of the U.S. While these two documents had some similarities, they had quite a few...
Words: 513 - Pages: 3
