1 / 19

The Articles of Confederation: Structure, Successes, and Weaknesses (1777-1789)

The Articles of Confederation established the first national government in the United States from 1777 to 1789. It created a unicameral Congress without an executive branch or federal courts, granting each state one vote regardless of population. While the Articles successfully organized land policies with the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which prohibited slavery and provided pathways to statehood, they were ultimately weakened by Congress's inability to levy taxes or regulate trade. This led to calls for reform and the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

meda
Télécharger la présentation

The Articles of Confederation: Structure, Successes, and Weaknesses (1777-1789)

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The Articles of Confederation 1777-1789

  2. I. Structure of The Articles of Confederation • The National Government • Unicameral (single chamber) Congress • No Executive Branch or President • No Federal Courts, Congress settled problems between states. • Each state had one vote in the Unicameral Congress.

  3. Each States’ congresses controlled who represented the state. Not the voters. • The Unicameral Congress only had power expressly given by the Articles. (mainly lawmaking) • All other powers were held by the states.

  4. II. Success of the Articles • Established the policy for lands west of the Appalachians. • Land Ordinance 1785: set up a system for surveying & dividing public territory (into squares!)

  5. III. Northwest Ordinance 1787 • Territories would be able to establish statehood in the future. • Population needed to reach 60,000 • Required public education be set up • Slavery prohibited (guess who proposed this!?) • “Northwest Territory”: Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana

  6. IV. Weaknesses of the Articles • Congress could not enact and collect taxes. • Congress could not regulate interstate or foreign trade. • Congress had no control over the printing of money – caused massive inflation! • Regardless of population, each state had only one vote in Congress.

  7. • Articles could be amended only if ALL states approved. • Could only request troops from states to maintain army. • There were 13 separate states that lacked national unity. “Dis-United States”

  8. Shays' Rebellion- angry farmers take weapons and burned down banks that held record of their debt. • What can Massachusetts do?

  9. Well…that didn’t work. • Annapolis Convention (1786) was called to discuss fixing Articles. • All states were invited, only 5 sent delegates. Problem? • Try again! -- this time in Philadelphia • Constitutional Convention (1787)

More Related