Effects Of The Articles Of Confederation

While under the Articles of Confederation, the government deemed to be unfit for the newfound, thriving country. In order to keep this nation thriving, our Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution. Originally, the Constitution was to only replace the Articles of Confederation. However, its amendments portrayed the struggles of once stolen rights and gave the nation a push in the right direction for their federal government. Therefore, the Constitution was a story of America’s rough past that molded the nation into this remarkable society.

Following the war, the states had no structure and made several attempts at forming a functional and working government before they ultimately decided on the constitution of 1787. The states distrust of a centralized government was revealed in the details of the Articles of confederation and the distaste in a strong centralized government in the Anti-Federalists. The Articles of Confederation was the first government plan that came about after the war. The Articles only worked for a short period of time as when they wrote the Articles they gave most of the power to the states instead of having a strong central government in fear of it being to powerful and a repeat of the British reoccurring. The decision to completely neglect the need of

But they couldn’t impose the taxes to pay for all of those things. Paying federal taxes was voluntary for the states at this time under the Articles of Confederation. In order to pay for the revolutionary war, the United States had borrowed money from European investors and nations. But with no power to tax, The United States couldn’t pay back any of those debts and this created a huge economic disaster by 1787. The central government couldn’t do much to protect peace at home without any funds and with very limited power.

The Articles of Confederation created a confederation in the United States. A confederation is a government in which the state government, not national, has dominant power. The leaders of the new nation feared that a strong, centralized government would lead to tyrannical monarchy like the British government. So the Founding Fathers established a confederation where there was no president nor Supreme court, and a Congress with limited power. But the existence of a weak congress led to an ineffective national government.

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.

The first citizens of the United States were all too familiar with taxation – mainly unfair tariffs, like British Parliament’s notorious taxes on stamped paper and tea. The founding fathers shared their fears, and created the Articles to address them. The Articles did not allow the federal government to directly issue any taxes to its citizens, or place any tariffs on global or internal trade; instead, they had to formally request a change in the tax code, which then had to go through a nearly impossible ratification process by the states. Despite reducing the chance of the government being able to implement a harsh and unfair tax, the Articles destroyed any hope for the government to properly function financially. Without proper funding from taxes and tariffs, Congress wasn’t able to repay Revolutionary War debts to Spain or France.

After the Articles of Confederation failed because they failed to give enough power to the national government and congress, our founding father’s needed to reflect on its flaws for a new system to be set in place. Their new creation, our Constitution, was then set into place, and was created from a basis of the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation directly influence the Constitution by its failure by changing some of the responsibilities of the federal and state governments. The Articles of Confederation gave too much power to the states, and the Constitution changed that.

The document known as the Articles of Confederation was a failure as the first government for America. The Articles of Confederation were a Failure for the first government of America because congress commanded little respect and no support from state governments which meant they didn't care what other people had to say. Also they were very anxious to maintain their power. That meant that they wanted to keep their power because if they didn't have it they knew they would just be any other person.

The Articles of Confederation did not provide the new nation with an effective government from 1781-1789. The Articles of Confederation was created by Benjamin Franklin and was approved by the Second Continental Congress in 1777. The purpose of the Articles of Confederation was to create a central government. The central government under the Articles consisted of the Confederation Congress, which was the only branch of government, and their job was to pass laws. Although it was a national government, it had little power over the people since it was created to be weaker than the state governments because people feared an overpowering national government.

It could only request that the individual states raise revenue to cover their share of national expenses. This caused a lot of controversy and division when the nation was trying to look for ways to repay the debt generated by the Revolutionary War. Furthermore, any amendments made to the Articles required unanimous agreement from the states, which usually never occurred. Moreover, Americans were especially afraid of federal taxes; remembering the “no taxation without representation”1 slogan from the Revolutionary War, they required that only the individual states could levy taxes. This system proved to be a completely ineffective way of financing a federal government, and in fact, many of the states refused to pay their fair part.

In 1776, the United States declared its’ independence from the tyrannical government of Britain and King George III. The newfound nation was now stuck trying to create its own system of government that would avoid all of the unitary government problems that they had just escaped. The Americans found themselves extremely loyal to their states and terrified of a centralized government. This school of thought produced the Articles of Confederation, or the first system of government in the United States. The Articles of Confederation would eventually be removed and changed to the Federal Republic that stands in our country today.

Considering the causes that led to the American Revolution the Articles of Confederation were a logical form of government for the revolutionaries to adopt because under the Articles of Confederation the states would be independent. With them being independent they could do anything they wanted, meaning they could make their own choices about what happens within their own state. Having Congress serve as the last resort on appeals means the states get to choose the outcome of disputes. Congress also had to maintain the treaties and alliances, army, and regulate money. The central government lacked the ability to control taxes, regulate the commerce and anything else that might have led to creation of new laws.

Following the Revolutionary War, America had just gained independance from Great Britain and needed to form a new government. The Articles of Confederation were established as an attempt to create a government that was unlike Britain’s. Unfortunately, the Articles of Confederation had several weaknesses. When in the process of repairing those weaknesses, the Federalists and the Anti-federalists formed. The Articles of Confederation were very weak as well as useless to America and because of this, the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists could not agree on a new type of government.

Only the states had the authority to impose taxes and raise revenue. Accordingly, Congress had to request for funds from the states. Eventually the states couldn’t raise enough money or given to the national government long after it was due. Without payment from the states, Congress struggled to pay off America’s foreign debts and was incapable of fulfilling its other tasks, such as managing foreign affairs. Not knowing how much and when states were going to pay their share severely handicapped an already-limited national government.

The Articles of Confederation was an agreement among the thirteen original states of the United States that served as the first constitution. The Articles had first been introduced by Richard Henry Lee in the Second Continental Congress. Although the Articles of Confederation has made its contributions throughout history, the Articles, however, did not last very long and had been proven inadequate from the very start. I agree with this statement based on the examples and analysis of the Constitution I will soon provide. The Articles of Confederation were written during a time when the American people feared a strong national government.