...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 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
...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
...“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 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
...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
...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
...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
...Axia College Material Appendix C The Confederation Government Part One: Table Fill in the following table with bullet points indicating the strengths and weaknesses of the Confederation government. |The Confederation Government | |Strengths |Weaknesses | |Established a republican form of government. |National government had no power to tax. | |Created Northwest Ordinance |Only allowed one vote per state regardless of the population. | |United States had established diplomatic relationships with |National government didn’t have the ability to enforce any | |foreign countries. |decisions of the Congress | |United States started borrowing money from international lenders. |There was no national court system to help. | |Continental Army won the war against Great Britain. |Amendments were only allowed in the 13 states. | |Also the United States negotiated a peace settlement with Great |Any decisions that had to do with money needed 9 out of 13 states | |Britain. ...
Words: 345 - Pages: 2
...-Americans feared having a strong national government because the English government was very abusive to the Colonists. Americans became disinclined to create new government that could potentially become another monarchy much like the one under King George. However, the lack of togetherness hindered cooperation amongst the states. Before the Articles of Confederation was created the individual states were printing their own money, which was worthless in other states. Many states even wrote their own state constitutions. These constitutions consisted of political ideas that provided equality and freedom. Thus the Articles of Confederation was the United States’ first constitution was created in order to hold the states of the new nation together...
Words: 410 - Pages: 2
...The Founding Fathers of the United States decided to give more power to the Federal government rather than the state government when creating the United States Constitution. The Constitution came about because of the lack of power the Articles of Confederation gave to the central government. The Constitution gave the federal government more power to govern over the people, just like the federalist wanted, but the anti federalists wanted the state to keep their power and be separate. The Constitution outlined the specifics of the federal and state powers to make sure that the states are kept in line and that the federal government has the proper power. The Constitution was and still is the best way to govern the United States of America. The Articles of Confederation were the document that was created to help govern the newly formed states that broke away from the British rule. The Articles of Confederation had many weaknesses. It had no...
Words: 607 - Pages: 3
...Christine Broom 11:00 am 9/28/2012 Susan Boyle The Articles of Confederation set up a weak government because it gave to much power to the states and not enough power to the central government. Each state was given the power to levy there own commerce. The state governments obtained individual debts during the war. Many larger states ended up having a much larger debt, while the smaller states ended up having a smaller debt. As more people were put in the hands of the larger states with larger populations, the larger states could very easily vote for the assumption of state debt. This made all the states pay for a "single state" debt rather than that state paying off debt alone. Another thing is that the state governments were given more power than the federal governments. The Articles of Confederation had many strengths and weaknesses. There were a lot more weaknesses because it was the "first official government of the United Sates". Some of the main weaknesses were, it has no army to protect from the outside forces, it had no executive branch, it had no federal court system-judicial branch, the government couldn’t force its own laws, it allowed each state to create there own foreign policies. The biggest strength was the ability of this article to bring all the thirteen original states together as one and establish a common legislature. Each of these states was expected to respect the laws of the other states. The constitution had a system called checks and balances...
Words: 482 - Pages: 2
