Effectiveness of the Articles of Confederation
Blake
APUSH- 5th
Articles of Confederation’s Effectiveness
Although the Articles of Confederation, from 1781-1789, had a higher purpose of attempting to create a stabilized government, while limiting its power, the overall effectiveness of this plan is not up to the standards as needed by the newly formed nation of America, and thus the government broke down by around 1786. Throughout these few years, the lack of a central government seemed to be an overwhelming factor when it comes to the effectiveness of this document. A large fault in the Articles is the inability of Congress to create taxes and regulate trade. There is simply no way that a central government can survive without taxes. Also, since the government had no authority over the colonies, they could not force anyone to contribute to the overwhelming war debt caused by the American Revolution. And without their ability to control the colonies, there is no central government. Also, the difficulty to make amendments to the Articles made it almost impossible for anything new to be put into action. With so many different ideals coming from the different parts of the nation, the Articles lacked in that it called for a nine-state majority to make amendments. It seems nearly impractical to try and acquire nine completely different states to agree on one topic, seeing they came from different parts of the country, and thus, making Congress close to nothing. And finally, if the U.S. were to be attacked by Britain again at this time, there would be no way for them to defend themselves, seeing that Congress could only ask states for troops, but could not raise an army. This would have been catastrophic if another country had decided to attack the U.S. for any reason. To sum that up, the inability to create taxes and trade regulations, the difficulty to make amendments, and the inability to rise up an army contributed to the ineffectiveness of the Articles of Confederation. Another factor to consider is
APUSH- 5th
Articles of Confederation’s Effectiveness
Although the Articles of Confederation, from 1781-1789, had a higher purpose of attempting to create a stabilized government, while limiting its power, the overall effectiveness of this plan is not up to the standards as needed by the newly formed nation of America, and thus the government broke down by around 1786. Throughout these few years, the lack of a central government seemed to be an overwhelming factor when it comes to the effectiveness of this document. A large fault in the Articles is the inability of Congress to create taxes and regulate trade. There is simply no way that a central government can survive without taxes. Also, since the government had no authority over the colonies, they could not force anyone to contribute to the overwhelming war debt caused by the American Revolution. And without their ability to control the colonies, there is no central government. Also, the difficulty to make amendments to the Articles made it almost impossible for anything new to be put into action. With so many different ideals coming from the different parts of the nation, the Articles lacked in that it called for a nine-state majority to make amendments. It seems nearly impractical to try and acquire nine completely different states to agree on one topic, seeing they came from different parts of the country, and thus, making Congress close to nothing. And finally, if the U.S. were to be attacked by Britain again at this time, there would be no way for them to defend themselves, seeing that Congress could only ask states for troops, but could not raise an army. This would have been catastrophic if another country had decided to attack the U.S. for any reason. To sum that up, the inability to create taxes and trade regulations, the difficulty to make amendments, and the inability to rise up an army contributed to the ineffectiveness of the Articles of Confederation. Another factor to consider is