...weak one. The congress just had a legislative branch with no executive or judicial branch. States were afraid that congress could control them so they made sure it had limited power. Articles of Confederation gave most of it’s power to the 13 states. Every action...
Words: 671 - Pages: 3
...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
...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
...“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 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
...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
...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
...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
...Totshea Thomas Prof. Lisa Ramos History 1301 4/07/2016 One of the biggest reason the confederation government faced so many problems was because they were trying to pay down the large war debt while incurring more det. One of the main reasons was because of the large amount of debt that incurred and the more debt that was being added to the mountains of debt the states already faced. One reason we can say the money was an issue because while waiting on the peace treaty it is stated that the soliders became angry about military payrolls. Its also stated in the “American Promise, That there was an promise to officers for generous pensions (half pay for life)”. So how can you expect someone to fight for a government who can’t afford to pay them for all their hard work. We have to think in today’s society military men and women get paid around $2.15 cents an hour. So I am pretty sure it was even more less then. They don’t get sick leave, vacation they have to leave their family and friends for months and sometimes years at a time and now because of the decisions that the government has made by going to war with many different countries has caused the national debt to increase. Now with that debt increasing that promise that was made is no longer holding up. So this country has gone into debt now soliders can’t take care of their families. It is stated that the rich get richer and poor get poorer. In this case the congress the “Paper pushers” make all the money, make all...
Words: 420 - Pages: 2
...Governing our nation under the Articles of Confederation was difficult. The Confederation was born under very extreme circumstances. It was a time when corruption from the monarchs had just ended and the people were looking for a different form of government. While there were many weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation, many believed that by creating a Constitution it would solve many of the nations problems. Fortunately, the Constitution solved many problems, but created some big flaws that still remain today. One of the weaknesses in the Articles of the Confederation was that most of the governmental power was held by the states. It created a weak national government. The states were afraid that congress, due to its limited power, was unable to control the states. The government under the Articles of Confederation was a legislative branch and had no executive or judicial branches. Under the constitution, Mr. John Jay, of the Federalist Papers #3, believed that once a national government was established it would be wiser than the states. The solution was achieved by more power being held by the national government. Each state must be under the authority of the national government and each state has control of local government. These examples can be seen today in the local government and police department. Another weakness in the Articles of Confederation is it only had one branch of government. It was called the legislative branch. There were no other branches of government...
Words: 580 - Pages: 3
...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
...Constitution Paper Kevin Walters HIS/110 October 13, 2014 Kellie Rainka Constitution Paper The United State began acting as so during the Revolutionary War, even before the Articles of Confederation were drafted and ratified. By understanding how the Articles of Confederation came to be, one can see why the Constitution was needed. The Constitution addressed weaknesses within the Articles of Confederation and it addressed the complaints regarding the Declaration of Independence. It included Great Compromise, which outlined how the states would be represented in Congress. The Articles of the Confederation were drafted between 1776 and 1777 because the Continental Congress had been acting on behalf of Americans without having the authority to do so (Schultz, 2012). “In the absence of a federal government, theContinental Congress had assumed a number of rights and responsibilities, such as creating theContinental Army, printingmoney, managing trade, and dealing with debt” (Schultz, 2012). The Articles of Confederation lacked in certain areas, however, and did not really create any new ideas. The Articles of Confederation essentially just put on paper how it was in America at that time. The Articles of Confederation did not give the central government much power at all with most of the power residing at the state level. Initially, the central government included only one representative per state, making up the “Committee of the States”...
Words: 874 - Pages: 4
...The Articles of Confederation was the original Constitution of the United States that was ratified in 1781. It was later replaced with the U.S. Constitution in 1789. The Articles of Confederation was a written document that established the functions of the national government of the U.S., after it declared independence from Great Britain. It is an important document in American history because it united the individual states and established the federal government. https://www.reference.com/history/three-weaknesses- articles-confederation. This document was needed so that the governing states could act together to become a nation. The Articles of Confederation needed to be changed to allow the citizens the freedom of speech and religion. The Articles...
Words: 520 - Pages: 3
