Articles Of Confederation Dbq Essay

fter the Treaty of Paris formally ended the American Revolution and recognized the United States of America as an independent nation, the Founding Fathers were made responsible for creating a government for the United States of America. They initially founded the Articles of Confederation, a weak government, out of fear of a strong, powerful one like Great Britain. Shortly after, however, the Founding Fathers noticed that the Articles of Confederation were failing. An enduring issue that connects to this time period is the enduring issue of conflict because the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation were the root cause of many conflicts between and in the states, as shown in Documents 1 and 2. Documents 1 and 2 both summarize the major flaws of the Articles of Confederation and the many conflicts they sparked.

Not so long after, problems arose with the governmental system and our founding fathers gathered and started considering different ideas to improve the governmental structure. Large and small states had different suggestions on what should be done to solve the problem. Yet, two things remained clear; Americans feared the British system and wanted nothing similar to it and, the Articles of Confederation had proved inefficient due to the restricted power of the federal government. Two main plans were the reason of debate, the battle was between the federalist and the antifederalist. The powers vested on the executive were a big part of the discussion and the arguments were sustained through a series of publications called the Federalist

After the American Revolution the Articles of Confederation was established as the document for our society, it created a loose national government and had to be reevaluated. The Constitution was an imperfect document, but it created a just government because it is a living document with an amendment process to improve the government. Over time our society has evolved ad developed greatly, through this the Constitution has remained relevant and true. The Articles of Confederation no doubt was faulty and needed attention.

All these financial and political problems were due to a loose union of thirteen states known as the Articles of Confederation. Although the Articles of Confederation was a big help to make our new nation, it failed in many ways. The national government was unable to solve all the problems mentioned in the previous paragraphs. As a result, in 1787 a meeting was held in Philadelphia by Congress and asked each state to send their delegates to discuss about how to improve the Articles of Confederation. They wrote a new constitution even though they gather to improve the Article of Confederation.

When it was initially proposed, the United States Constitution was a contentious document. Those in favor of ratifying the Constitution asserted that it established a strong national government and ensured justice and liberty for all individuals, while those opposed contended that it established an overly powerful central government and eroded state rights (CrashCourse, 2013). The battle over ratifying the Constitution was raging, with both sides presenting strong points that are still being contested

The major controversies involved in the drafting and passage of the document concerned states’ rights, representation, funding of the government, and control of the western lands beyond the borders of the new nation. The articles

The structure of Congress was decided so that “Nine of thirteen states had to agree before a law could pass. If anyone wanted to amend the Articles to make the government more efficient, that took unanimous support. Many tried but weren’t able to secure all thirteen votes.” (iCivics packet). These harsh laws made it hard to pass any laws or make amendments to the Articles because it was near impossible to grasp the vast majority of votes.

With both the Articles of Confederation and the Declaration of Independence inserted it was still yet insufficient to hold the new nation together as an independent and effective nation (Ginsberg 36). Additionally, a consequence of the Article of Confederation demonstrating its weakness was the rivalry within the States for foreign commerce because it allowed “European powers go against one another which generated

Compromising was crucial. The individual states, and opposing parties such as the federalists and antifederalists had to work together for the progression of the country. The Articles of Confederation had an unfit ratio of strengths to weaknesses. One of the main weaknesses was an excessively restricted

This led to the Articles of Confederation which gave most of the powers traditionally held by the national government to the states. This spread out the power within the country, with 13 different governments. There were many reasons the colonists felt they should do this, but there was also many difficulties with this. Eventually though, the states decided it was for the best to band together and create a new constitution.

“Why are we here?” , You might be wondering. Well, I will tell you. As my good friend and colleague, Mr. Edmund Randolph, had introduced earlier in the Convention, the situation at hand is “preventing the fulfillment of the prophecies of the American downfall.” Our mission during the duration of this Constitutional Convention is to correct any issues pertaining to the Articles of Confederation that no longer are effective in running the federal government.

In short, the articles resulted in a weak central government with most of the power left at the state level. Most of the leaders, including George Washington and Alexander Hamilton realized that a stronger national government was essential, (Wilson, DiIulio, JR & Bose, 2012) and so in May 1787, delegates met in Philadelphia to revise the Articles in hopes that a compromise could be achieved. They had the same goals and objectives they had in 1776, which was the protection of life, and

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.

Between July 1775 and November 1777, there was the drafting of the Articles of Confederation which followed a slow state ratification process, delaying ratification of the Articles of Confederation until the 1st March of 1781. Congress later on convened and held conferences until the 4th day of March in 1789 after which the Federal government took over within the confines of the constitution. Understanding that the Articles of Confederation did not stay in place for too long, we cannot overlook their contribution in terms of paving way for a longer lasting Constitution. These articles of Confederation had their similarities to the Constitution as well as differences; most of these differences thus constitute the Articles’ weaknesses as shall be discussed below. The Articles of Confederation came to relate so much to the Constitution and would later be adopted.

DBQ Essay The United States Constitution is a document that or founding fathers made in order to replace the failing Articles of Confederation (A of C). Under the Constitution, the current government and states don’t have the problems they faced when the A of C was in action. The Constitution was created in 1788, and held an idea that the whole nation was nervous about. This idea was a strong national government, and the Federalist assured the people that this new government would work. The framers of the Constitution decided to give more power to the Federal government rather than the state governments because the A of C had many problems, there was a need for the layout of new government, rights, and laws, and there was a need for the Federal