“The Nation’s First Governments” “The Nation’s First Governments”

Early State Governments: Legislative Legislative branch: many were bicameral, or divided into two houses or parts.

New Governments - Executives Executive branch: each had a governor to carry out laws.

New Governments - Judicial Judicial branch: each had a system of judges and courts to interpret the laws and decide how the laws should be applied.

Need for Unity If the colonies were to be successful against Great Britain, it was imperative that they stand united. 13 separate states would be easily conquered by Britain. What does the above cartoon mean to you?

“Articles of Confederation”

The “Articles of Confederation” was the first attempt at a constitution for the United States. A confederation is a group of states that are loosely joined together for a common purpose. (a league of friendship!)

Articles of Confederation The Articles of Confederation created a one house (unicameral) legislature. There was no president!!! Congress was the only government body that had power over the army and the authority to deal with foreign matters.

Problems Quickly Begin! By 1781, all 13 states ratified, or approved the Articles. It was clear that there were some problems… Strict voting requirements: to change (amend) the Articles of Confederation required all 13 states’ approval. This made it very difficult to change any part of the document.

The Gov’t seemed like THIS…

But it was really like THIS!!

During the Revolution, the Articles of Confederation Congress was effective because it helped us UNITE to FIGHT – we won the American Revolution…………but after the Revolution, the problems were obvious… WRITE this………… Other weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation were: - No central leadership (weak executive) – No power to regulate commerce (trade) – No power to enforce its laws – No national court system to carry out justice – No power to tax the people. (Left us deep in debt) – Any changes made to the Articles required rare UNANIMOUS consent of all 13 states!

Revolutionary War In 1783, the “united States” defeated Great Britain after 7 years of war. The Articles of Confederation was successful in accomplishing its goal! The new Congress found itself deep in debt (as did the states). Why – what weakness of the Articles contributed to this problem???

Failure of the “Articles of Confederation”

Shay’s Rebellion ( )

Shays’ Rebellion ( ) Daniel Shays led a rebellion against called “Shays’ Rebellion” against a weak federal government. Farmers who had served in the war and did not get paid could not make payments on their farms. Many lost their land after fighting for their country. We needed to do something about the Articles in order to create a stronger national government! video

Failure of the “Articles of Confederation” Under the Articles, the United States had a confederal system of government (where there was no strong, central power to protect the country). This was a major flaw. This led to our current federal system of government (where power is divided and shared between the federal government and states).

Return to Philadelphia After Shays Rebellion, 12 of the 13 states (all but Rhode Island) agreed to return to Philadelphia to revise/fix the “Articles of Confederation”. It became obvious during the meeting that they were not fixable. Instead, this turned into the Constitutional Convention where the delegates would write a whole new plan of government called the U.S. Constitution. The goal of the delegates was to create a stronger central (federal) government to replace the Confederal one under the Articles.