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Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Articles Of Confederation

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The Articles of confederation , the solid compose created by the original 13 colonies . Which made The continental congress adopted the articles on November 15 , 1777 but the articles were not ratified by all 13 colonies until March 1 , 1781 . Confederation means a joining of several groups for a common reason . With the Articles of confederation in full effect the nation was a league of sovereign nations , each only having one vote (Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia pg.1) . These articles established a firm league of friendship among the states (Crouse pg.5) . The constitution was needed because of all the weakness the Articles of confederation contained . As in the congress having very limited powers , not being able to collect taxes

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