Articles of Confederation in the Post-Revolutionary War United States

After the American colonies had successfully broken away from the Crown, they needed to create a central government. The first option was known as the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation were not effective in solving the significant problems facing the new country. They failed miserably in trying to help the economic situation and the government had very little political power. Their only success was determining how to split up land. The many failures led to a very weak central government under the Articles. After the Revolutionary War, the United States had a lot of debt owed to colonists as well as foreign countries such as France. This was a very large burden on the citizens. However, the Articles did not give the power to tax to the Federal government; the states had the power.

The lack of taxation made the economic situation much worse. Also, the United States trading ships were being ravaged by the Dey of Algiers, who were African pirates. There was very little the government could do because it had no power over commerce. Additionally, to try and curb massive inflation, states began to print their own money. The money became worthless and was known as "Rag Money”. As the debt piled up, the people became even more angry. In the Soldiers Revolt of 1783 who had not been paid for their efforts in the revolution rioted. All of these problems were the result of a weak central government that had no ability to regulate commerce or tax its citizens.

To further worsen the situation, the Articles had little influence over the political activities of the states. The states often quarreled amongst themselves and disagreed with congress. Each state believed they had sovereignty and they were independent states in a ”League of Friendship". The Articles did a very poor job at uniting the states as a nation. When a convention was called, it became a very chaotic place. Each state got only one vote and this caused problems. The small states favored this so they were not overrun, but the large states disliked it because they wanted more power. It took a 9/13 majority to a pass a simple law, and a unanimous vote to amend the Articles. Nothing got done because a single state could hold out to get what they want.

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Citizens believed that because it was so weak, the nation could turn to" Mobrocracy", ruled by mobs with no regard for the central government. A weak central government paired with power-hungry states led to a poor government that failed to fix the problems of the new nation. However, in the midst of all of the turmoil, the Articles were able to fix one problem: how to divide the newly acquired land. Congress passed the Land Ordinance of 1785. This law detailed how they would sell the land and that the proceeds would go towards paying off the national debt. The territories would be divided into townships with sixteen sections and then sold off. The sixteenth piece of land was given to schools and education. A few years later, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 was drafted by Thomas Jefferson and then passed.

This law detailed how the new territories would be able to gain statehood. The territory would be able to apply for statehood after reaching a population of 60,000 free citizens and adopted a state constitution. Once approved by congress the territory would be granted statehood. This may have been the lone bright spot and an important step towards the Constitution. While the Articles of Confederation were a step towards democracy, they were unsuccessful in fixing the problems inherited when the United States gained its freedom from England. The Articles were economically insufficient and politically weak but were able to fairly divide up the new territory. Overall, they were ineffective in solving the problems that were dealt to the new nation.

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