Articles of Confederation The First Government of the United States

What happened after the war?▪ The United States was newly independent and it was a giant

baby.▪ It faced many political and economic difficulties– What does this mean?

▪ The new government that was established was not able to deal with these difficulties

▪ This government was written by the Continental Congress and adopted in 1781 – Articles of Confederation ▪ More power went to the states then to Congress

Economic Problems: Trade

▪ When under British control the United States had a guaranteed market for their goods

▪ Now they have to compete with everyone else

▪ Other nations refuse to make trade agreements with us because Congress lacked the power to enforce the agreements

Economic Problems: Debt▪ Government is unable to pay it’s debts

▪ To keep the war going, Congress had to borrow money from the Americans and we owed a TON of money to other nations.

▪ Congress can’t levy taxes – so they have no way to get money to pay back their debt

▪ Vicious cycle because other nations have no faith that we will be able to pay them back so they don’t loan us money.

Economic Problems: Territorial Disputes

▪ Control of the American frontier is a huge conflict

▪ Britain kept military posts in the Northwest Territory even though they no longer were owners of the U.S.

▪ Spain thinks they own territory west of Georgia and refuse to let Americans navigate the lower Mississippi River.– Why is this a problem?

Economic Problems: State vs. State

▪ The states don’t know how to get along▪ Many states claim that their boundaries run west to

the Mississippi River–These boundaries start to overlap one another▪ States disagree on the navigation rights of the rivers▪ States taxed on each others products and also set up

their own taxes on foreign products

Why do the Articles of Confederation work?

▪ Lead people through the last few years of the Revolution

▪ Keeps the 13 states together until they can create a stronger government

▪ Passage of 2 important laws– Ordinance of 1785– Northwest Ordinance

▪ Ordinance of 1785–Provided for the sale of

public land to settlers

▪ Northwest Ordinance–Set up a plan for governing

the Northwest Territory

Why are people unhappy with it?

▪ Many people like the weak government– They just fought a war to get rid

of a strong central authority (The King)

▪ But many people want something stronger

▪ Shay’s rebellion makes the need for a stronger central government even more important

Shay’s Rebellion ▪ Weak economy means farmers don’t

have the money to make their mortgage payments– Fall behind in their payments– Banks then foreclose (get rid of) the farmers

property▪ Daniel Shays organizes farmers who

fear this foreclosure and they march on Springfield to seize the weapons there

▪ Common people couldn’t stop them so it increased the want for a stronger national government to help fix these issues

Provision Weakness States were organized into loose confederation, with single branch of government; Congress

There was no executive to enforce laws and no judiciary to settle disputes

Congress could request funds from states

Congress lacked power to tax

Congress could request troops from states

Congress had no power to raise an army on it’s own

Congress could issue money and regulate weights and measures

States could also issue money. Congress could not regulate states domestic and foreign trade

Each state had one vote in Congress Heavily populated states were not represented proportionately

Any measure required 9 of 13 votes for passage; amending Articles required a unanimous vote

Legislation was difficult to pass; amendment was virtually impossible