HIS 135
Articles Of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation was the first written constitution of the United States; it came out of wartime urgency. The progress of the document was slowed down by fear of central authority and extensive land claims by states before it was ratified on March 1, 1781. Under the Articles of Confederation the states remained sovereign and independent, while Congress served as a last resort on appeal of disputes. Congress had been given the authority to coin money, make treaties and alliances, and maintain armed forces. Although Congress held all this power their main problems included economic disorganization, lack of central leadership and legislative inefficiencies. These issues mainly led to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 for the creation of the new federal laws.
The first deficiency of the Articles of Confederation was that it was completely economically disorganized. This led to financial hardship for the new nation. In the late 1780’s the new nation had been struggling to pay off the debts that were accumulated during its fight for independence from Great Britain. These problems were made even worse by the limitations present in the Articles of Confederation. One of those limitations was that Congress had limited power to regulate trade. The only trade that Congress was allowed to regulate was the trade with Native American tribes as long as it did not impair an individual state. This majorly affected the economic struggles because there was such little economic coordination among the states and each state had various agendas and import and export policies. Along with the trade limitations there was not a uniform system of currency. Congress did have the right to regulate forms of the currency, yet they failed to call for a single form of currency so that each state’s was different. This made trade among each other and other foreigners difficult. Another major ecumenical issue was now power of taxation....