Articles of Confederation

Warm Up Questions

What is a confederation?What is a republic? Why is the United

States a republic?What kind of governments did the new

states create for themselves?What was the new geographical

boundary for America, after the Treaty of Paris? Why is this important?

Moving West

American’s started moving west, past the Appalachian mountains– Their land extended to the Mississippi River

What problems did they face?Native Americans– This was their land– Tensions arose and led to violent

confrontationsAs Americans were moving west, the

people in the east created new state governments

Appalachian Mountains

Mississippi River

Plains

Westward Expansion

New State Governments

When the colonies declared independence they became free and independent states

Each state created its own governmentThey wanted to make more democratic gov’tsSome states created separate branches

– Divided the power among different branchesThe hope was to prevent the gov’t from

becoming too powerfulALL states had a republican form of gov’tRepublic: people choose representatives to

govern them

New National Gov’t

United we stand, divided we fallDuring the revolution, Congress

developed a plan for a national government

The delegates disagreed on votes– Should each state have 1 vote or– Should votes be based on population

They disagreed on who should control the lands west of the Appalachian’s – Individual states or national government

New National Gov’t cont…

John Dickinson proposed an idea after the Revolutionary War ended

He called for: – strong central government, with control over

the western lands– equal representation for the states– the power to levy taxes.

Why would people have problems with this?

After their experience with Britain, they feared a strong, centralized gov’t

John Dickinson

Articles of Confederation

Congress drastically changed Dickinson’s proposal– Gave states as much independence as possible

The Articles established a confederation of sovereign states and limited the power of the federal gov’t

This was proposed to all states in November of 1777.

Why the delay in accepting it?– Revolution– Disagreements among the states

Articles cont…

Disagreements – boundary lines– conflicting decisions by state courts– differing tariff (tax) laws– trade restrictions between states

Small states wanted equal representation with larger states

Larger states were afraid of paying huge taxes to the federal government

Disagreed over control of the Western territories States with no frontier border wanted the gov’t to

control the land States who bordered wanted control of the land Eventually agreed to give control to the gov’t

Articles cont…

Ratified on March 1, 1781– 7 months before the surrender of Yorktown

Congress had the power to:– regulate foreign affairs– declare war – Run the postal service – appoint military officers– control Native American issues– borrow money– determine the value of coin – issue bills of credit.

But….

Articles cont…

Most important powers went to the states:– Set taxes– Enforce national laws– Controlled lands West of the

Appalachian’s– Congress had no power to ask states

for troops or money

Government Under the Articles

Unicameral LegislatureOne vote per state2/3 majority needed to pass

legislationUnanimous vote needed to amend

Articles

Weaknesses of the Articles

No national executiveNo national court systemNational government could not

collect taxesNational government could not raise

an armyNational government could not

regulate trade

Problems under the Articles

Currency Problems: Many states printed their own money. The national currency, meanwhile, became almost worthless

Intrastate Commerce: States placed tariffs on each other's goods. This, combined with currency problems, led to a sharp decline in intrastate commerce

Problems cont…Foreign Trade: Other countries placed tariffs

and trade restrictions on US goods; the US was not able to reciprocate. The absence of a strong navy also left US merchant ships vulnerable to pirates.

Foreign Affairs: The inability of the national government to raise an army left the US vulnerable. For example, key provisions of the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War, were not enforced. As a result, the British continued to occupy forts in the Northwest territory -- landed that had technically been ceded to the US.