What Are The Weaknesses Of The Articles Of Confederation

With a revolution starting, the thirteen colonies needed to implement a new government to replace, and improve upon the British one that the colonies were fighting against. The Founding Fathers’ first attempt at such a government was drafted and defined in the Articles of Confederation. This draft was put in front of the Second Continental Congress in 1777. It was completely ratified and adopted by March 1, 1781. While battles large and small enveloped the fledling country, it was written quickly, and in the grand scheme of things was also adopted and implemented rather quickly.

Before the U.S. Constitution there was the Articles of Confederation. The document could declare war, negotiate treaties, and control foreign affairs. It couldn’t enforce laws, tax, and raise its own army. What the Articles Of Confederation lacked was a strong central government. Alexander Hamilton called for a constitutional convention in 1786, and it took place in Philadelphia on May 14, 1787.

Under the articles, many states ignored requests to pay taxes. Not requiring states to pay taxes is an obvious flaw. Another problem with the Articles also has to do with money. Congress did not have the power to make a currency for the states, so each state had to print its own. Having

After the American Revolution, the colonies needed to reconstruct a new, fresh government. America, however, was extremely restrictive with giving the central government any forms of power after the hardships the colonies faced being under the British government and Parliament. The colonies did not want to undergo another period of unfair taxation and regulated systems. Thus, America’s first government, The Articles of Confederation, gave the central government immensely few granted powers. After an eight year period, the majority of America knew that they needed a new form of government.

The Articles of Confederation was drafted between 1776 and 1777 by the Continental Congress, although it did not go into effect until 1781 (Schultz, 2013). The federal government under the Articles of Confederation had three branches: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. They granted unique powers to each branch. The intention was to make Congress the most powerful branch.

Not everything is done correct the first time around. Surprisingly, this is also true for America’s national government. The Articles of Confederation was the constitution of the United States for the first few years of its existence, however, it had many flaws that jeopardized said existence. These flaws included but are not limited to the fact that the national government didn't have the power to tax the states, it couldn't enforce its own laws, but rather only create them, no national currency, however each state had its own currency, a national army could be put in place, and the same goes for a national court. The voting process for each state was also an issue since each state only received one vote which was not fair to

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 motivation behind the central government laid in wartime urgency. There was a need for foreign acceptance and assistance, and the growth of national feeling. Under the Articles of Confederation, the government was not able to keep up with the collection of taxes. This ultimately left them with large amounts of debt and left them not being

The Articles of Confederation set up a unicameral government that only consisted of a legislative branch, with each state having a single vote. There was not an executive branch, nor a judicial branch. The Articles of Confederation gave too much power to the states. For example, the states could coin money, but couldn't collect taxes. Congress was very limited in its power, they could declare war, conduct foreign affairs and make treaties The Constitution aided the issues brought forth by the Articles of Confederation by creating three branches of government (separation of power), which each have a limited amount of power thanks to the checks and balances

The Articles of Confederation were a major improvement over the past government of England, in which the power only belongs to a few people, the king and parliament. The Articles of Confederation allowed each individual state to have its own power. Congress could not require any state to pay taxes, nor could they require to build a national army. Preventing tyranny was a major idea and a major goal that the Articles of Confederation produced. One other improvement that the Articles of Confederation instituted was the idea of not only reducing the power of the king, but increasing the power of the people.

The Articles of Confederation were a document seen as the “first” constitution of the United States. This document granted the new national government power to control the military, declare war, and create treaties between the states. However, the Articles had holes in it considering the government did not have the power to tax, create laws without at least nine states’ approval, or change the Articles of Confederation without a unanimous vote. This means that the country soon fell into debt and petty arguments between state, the new government had no control. It was time for a change.

The Articles of Confederation was the United States first constitution. Under these articles, the states remained sovereign and independent, with Congress serving as the last resort. Congress was also given the authority to make treaties and alliances, maintain armed forces, and coin money. The Articles of Confederation was written in 1787 and ratified on March 1st, 1781. (http://www.history.com/topics/articles-of-confederation)

The articles of confederation has many strengths but also some weaknesses, one strength is that it gave congress the power to deal with foreign affairs and authority to declare war, make peace, alliances, and sign treaties. This was a huge step because now a designated person has the control to make big decisions such as these. It also encouraged coordination and cooperation between different states and they can settle disputes between the states. This ultimately led to less conflict amongst the states in the United States and gave further attention to the conflict going on out of the U.S. A weakness that was not resolved by the Articles of Confederation is they have no power to regulate commerce or trade between the states; each state could

Since the United States was relatively a new nation, it needed some form of organization to hold the states together and keep its government and society stable to build a stronger economy (Knoedl, 2003). The first and foremost inherited weakness of the Articles came from the fact that it replaced sovereign power in the hands of the states. This started after the American Revolution, when the American people feared that the colonists would form a new government that could function similarly to King George III’s monarchy after having dealt with the British Crown for years. Since then these states would start creating their own set of rules and laws and because of some states, creating their own constitutions and each state can rule itself, it gave more power to them than the actual Federal Government.

The new government, the Constitution, is now able to enforces taxes, which allowed money to come in and the government was able to pay off their debt. One other weakness of the articles was that it gave all power to only one house of representative from each state, the constitution try to solve this matter that creating three separate branches of power, the Legislative branch, Executive branch, and the Judiciary branch, allowing the power to be more divided. Representation was another problem in under the Articles of Confederation because a big state like Massachusetts and a small state like New Jersey both have the same amount of representatives, the Constitution made a compromise by forming two house in Congress the Senate, where each state get equal representation, and the House of Representatives, where each state is represented by the population of the state. The Constitution also fixed the problem of passing a law; under the Articles of Confederation, laws can only be passed if 9 out of 13 representatives agrees on the law because of this not much laws were passed, now under the Constitution only 51 percent of the votes to pass the law. From this readers can infer that the Constitution fixed many of the defects in the Articles