Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Articles Of Confederation

Out of frustration with the British monarchy during the colonial period the original legal framework The Articles of Confederation was born in an effort of mobilizing and organizing the United states original thirteen colonies. The Articles of Confederation forced the amendment process for federal laws to be unanimous, had no executive, encouraged a loose association of states and required a two-thirds majority for the passage of federal bills. Before inception of the Articles all American activities deemed insurgent to the Crown of England were viewed the same way we would view terrorist today. These were looked on as rebellious actions acting autonomous of a sovereign government. Thus, the revolutionary forces in the United States couldn’t

The first was that the Articles of Confederation was the United States first constitution. The constitution was written during a time where Americans had an aversion and fear of strong national governments. Americans had never formed their own government and the Articles of Confederation representation of a first attempt at government. In the 1770s as America was laying the groundwork for state constitution-making and began moving towards independence, few were ready for a unified national government due to the failure of the

The Articles creating a "loose confederation of states." is an example of one of these weaknesses. The Confederation had no independent executive or judiciary, no federal power of taxation or raising revenue and did not possess federal power to operate directly on individual citizens. Congress had the authority to bargain treaties with foreign powers, but all these treaties had to be endorsed by the states. Congress had no power to levy taxes or regulate trade. This means that the congress was not able to make the colonist pay taxes it could only request the state governments for money. The states and the national congress had both amassed debts during the war, and Congress had no power to standardize foreign or interstate business so paying the debts became a major concern. There was also a lack of a national currency as states had taken to printing their own currency, thereby reducing the strength of the American economy. The Articles respected states to a degree that their veto power could literally stop the defense of the country and taxation. There was no executive branch so the national government was powerless to enforce any acts that Congress passed. This meant it could not adequately defend itself from foreign invasion because it needed consent from the states. The level of power the Article