Articles of Confederation
The desire for no central government during the time of declaring our independence from Britain and dissolving the rule of George III over the American colonies lead a constitution known as the Articles of Confederation. Many events leading up to the Articles left the colonist weary about the transfer of power from one tyrant to another. In order to avoid control of a central government, the articles of confederation allowed the majority of the power to remain with the states and left the central government with very little to no control. The central government was unable to build an army. For instance, Article VII states that when land forces are raised by any state for th
At this point it was decided to discuss the weakness of the confederation. In May 1787, all states except Rhode Island came to Annapolis, Maryland to discuss uniform trade. Not only did the confederation not have any money, the colonist had several forms of currency and paper money that was not worth very much and while the confederation could print its own currency, it did not have the silver and gold to back it up. "Articles of Confederation," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2004Http://encarta. REFERENCESKrug, Mark (1972) Rise of the American Nation (3rd Ed) (pp101-155)Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc. When only five states showed up, another meeting was scheduled. Congress could not raise an army to deal with military situations. So, while the Second Continental Congress was able to appoint a person to head a military force, no state was made required to contribute forces. Because of this the government was unable to pay loans owed to people, businesses, and countries that had supported them in separating from Britain. The Articles of Confederation needed some serious change to relieve the confusion between the states dealing with duties, interstate trade, regulating finances but was unable to make changes to the articles without a unanimous vote of all 13 states. One more problem that the articles of confederation failed to consider was a national court system Issues between states were sometimes impossible to resolve or enforce and although the confederation had the ability to make treaties, it had no way to enforce the treaties they made.
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