ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION--

America had shaky beginnings. After winning the Revolution, the new nation was faced with an incredible task: making a new government. This was not an easy assignment, especially since America had been used to being ruled by Britain for such a long period of time. The Articles of Confederation, though somewhat disjointed, provided a shortlived, minimally effective government. However, there were several bad parts of the Confederation, and America was experiencing numerous difficulties as well.

The Articles of Confederation were based on a league of friendship between the states. Though friendship was a good thing between friends, it was something very bad between states for a government. A united America relying on principles of friendship was not healthy for the government. A state friendly toward another state would never tell that state if it was doing something wrong. Brutal honesty was needed in order for a government to survive. Also, it was extremely difficult to pass any kind of law; in order for something to be ratified, 2/3 of the states had to agree. With all of the radically different states, it would be impossible for anything to ever pass. In addition, the Articles of Confederation did not provide a strong unity: the states were hardly united, weak, and there was no powerful central government (just a bunch of tiny individual state governments). As one can see from Document H, many thought the Articles were weak and needed changing.

Under the Articles of Confederation, the government possessed no real power. Without a strong central force, the government was not even able to collect taxes from its newly independent citizens. Though America had recently won the Revolution, it possessed a massive war debt and was unable to pay off funds. As Document C notes, the government needed help from the states even to pay its military. Of course, it did not help that thousands of American citizens were buying British goods instead of American goods. Instead of opening up their new market, many people continued to export goods from Britain (Document B). When Congress tried to put a tax on imported goods, the states unanimously rejected such an idea, as they believed it threatened their liberty, and were still wary of the many taxes Britain had forced upon them (Document A). Thus one can observe how the government was weak while the Articles of Confederation were in effect.

Many of the states were still not united. Several were unwilling to give up their land claims which had originally been promised to them. It was not until 1802 that the last state, Georgia, finally ceded its western lands to the government (Document E). More problems arose when America realized a vengeful Britain wanted to go to war again. To stay out of war, John Jay made a weak treaty with Britain that basically accomplished nothing and earned much ridicule from the states (Document D). All the while, Britain poked fun at a weak, disjointed America as it continued to kidnap American sailors, claiming they were escaped Britain soldiers were still in the Northwest Territory of America. Simply put, America was too new a country and too weak to be able to do anything under the Articles of Confederation.

In closing, the Articles of Confederation provided a temporary government that was weak in strength and unity. However, it did manage to keep America out of war, and that was what was most important at this time. The Articles were but a small start to what would later become a great nation.

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