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 confrontations As 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 government They wanted to make more democratic gov’ts Some states created separate branches Divided the power among different branches The hope was to prevent the gov’t from becoming too powerful ALL states had a republican form of gov’t Republic: people choose representatives to govern them

New National Gov’t United we stand, divided we fall During 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… But…. 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 Legislature
 One vote per state
 2/3 majority needed to pass legislation
 Unanimous vote needed to amend Articles

Weaknesses of the Articles No national executive No national court system National government could not collect taxes National government could not raise an army National 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.