Weakness of the Articles of Confederation

  The Articles of confederation were written to create a government with limited authority. America wanted to make a country run by the people. (Articles of Confederation) However this didn’t work out quite as they had hoped. The articles of confederation had several weak points.

 Under the articles of confederation, America did not have the power to: enforce treaties, make taxes, create national courts, regulate commerce between states, or call together an army. (Switched on Schoolhouse) so America had no money, no army, no proper treaties, no court system, and no trade between states.

 Among the problems this caused, Congress was having lots of problems with other countries. Spain was trying to take more of Americas land than was agreed, and Brittan refused to follow our treaties, because congress didn’t have the power to make it work.

America was going into a depression because congress was bankrupt and did not have the power to tax or print money. Multiple states tried to take matters into their own hands and print their own money, which was useless in other states. (Switched on schoolhouse)

Our congress had no power, and was pretty useless. We actually did have a president at this time, before George Washington, president of congress John Hanson, but because he had no power no one knows him. (Hakim 148)

 Because the articles of Confederation were so weak often when congress was called states wouldn’t send representatives, and at one point Rohde Island was functioning effectively as its own country.

 So Congress got together and made the Constitution which has been running America ever since. It works much better than the articles of confederation. America has a strong Government with a checks and balance system that keeps every one in line. But, even with all of that the Articles of confederation did have some successes. Out of the mess that was the Articles came the North West Ordinance of 1787. This allowed there to be new states made North West of the Ohio River. Another success of the confederation was actually all its faults. It proved that America could keep its self together even through all the bad things happening and it because it was weak, it made the Constitution strong (Hakim 150)

“Articles of Confederation” World History in Context, 2006 Cengage Learning, web, October 22, 2012.

http://ic.galegroup.com.proxy.mcpl.lib.mo.us/ic/whic/topic2/actionWin?query=&prodId=UHIC&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&display-query=&mode=view&limiter=AC+y&showDisambiguation=&displayGroups=&userGroupName=&action=e&catId=GALE|00000000MXHY&scanId=

“Weakness of the Confederation, Part I.” Switched on Schoolhouse story of the constitution 2011, alpha omega publications. The story of the constitution, unit two: A new nation is formed.

Hakim, Joy, A History of US: From Colonies to Country. Revised third edition. New York, Oxford University press, 2005 print.