1. Articles of Confederation

2. 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?

3. 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

4. Appalachian Mountains

5. Mississippi River

6. Plains

7. Westward Expansion

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. John Dickinson

12. 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

13. 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

15. 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….

16. 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

19. Government Under the Articles
Unicameral Legislature

One vote per state

2/3 majority needed to pass legislation

Unanimous vote needed to amend Articles

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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.