Articles of Confederation
In the 1770's, as America's great thinkers and writers were declaring their desire for independence; they also established a committee to lay the foundation for the American form of government. These brilliant writers and philosophers hesitantly began designing the national level of government for use in America and named their final draft the Articles of Confederation . Out of their utter distrust of a centralized government, due to their association with the English monarchial system, the drafters deliberately established these articles as a loose confederation of states, rather than a firmly united nation. Life under the Articles of Confederation was filled with hardships and uncertainty, and the political scene was paralyzed with inability due to the lack of sovereignty in a central executive branch and the unanimous state consent required for the ratification of an amendment together with the lack of a taxation privilege . However, despite its inherent flaws, the Confederation government did prove capable to accomplish a few foreign and domestic achievements. Under the authority of the Confederation, the United States began to introduce itself in the global scene. The United States determined its place in the community of n
On the domestic home front, the Congress began to effectively solve the land ordnance problem. This left the national government, running through the Confederation Congress, powerless and unable to proceed with the most trivial matters of politics. They then changed the mode of representation in Article 1, section 3, as to better represent the people of America. Since change was virtually impossible, due to the unanimous amendment process, the Articles remained unchanged and hardships continued to mount for many Americans. This caused Congress to be severely handicapped when it came to the enforcement of her requests. These farmers pleaded with their state governments for help, but in most cases states refused to interfere, in one case in particular, these angered mobs of farmers rebelled against the government. Alarmed by the rebellion, other state governments agreed to help the angry farmers to thwart these rebellions. These weaknesses caused many problems in America. By 1887, some of the American leaders realized if the country was to survive a new plan of government needed to be considered. These major achievements were all accomplished despite the inherent flaws in the basic structure of the Confederation government. This lack of an executive, coupled with the Congress's negated power of taxation, caused a crippling financial difficulties. The economic downturn of the mid 1780's, caused by the removal of the guaranteed English markets, left many farmers ruined and inundated with debt . Moreover, while accomplishing all this, the congress managed to keep the national economy afloat. In Article 13, the Articles declared that in order to ratify an amendment to the Articles the consent of all 13 states were required . The Articles of Confederation, which were in force from 1781 to 1789, had many shortcomings and flaws, most due to the inherent distrust of a strong central power.
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