From 1781-1789 The Articles Of Confederation

Vanessa Wong
Miss Conner
World History
17 September 2014
“From 1781-1789 the Articles of Confederation provided the United States with an effective government.” Evaluate this statement.

The confederation era is considered to be one of the most influential periods in the development of America’s history. Although the Articles of Confederation, from 1781 through 1789, did affect the United States, it failed to provide America with a sufficient government. The Articles of Confederation presented the United States government with deficient foreign policies, economic issues, and a weak domestic policy. The Articles of Confederation was incompetent in handling foreign affairs. Foreign countries all around the world, including America itself,
An example of this damaging economic problem was that the Congress could not levy taxes upon the individual states; the colonies saw this as tyranny (Davis). The national government needed funds because they owed a large debt to numerous foreign countries and had no way of gaining any money, due to the lack of taxes. These overwhelming overseas debts only made the Confederation government weaker (Berman and Murphy 23). Another example of economic failures under the Articles’ government was the establishing of the Land Ordinance of 1785 (Johnson). This economic failure specified that farmers, to help with economic development, could purchase the territories of the Northwest, which were plots of several acres split into a six-mile radius. However, these plots of land were bought out by the Ohio Company, and sold for only ten cents an acre. The original price that was supposed to be sold to farmers was to be a dollar an acre (Berman and Murphy 17). Ohio Company’s prime investors were devious congressional representatives who sought to manipulate the inefficient, weak Confederation Congress. In addition, surprisingly enough, the Articles of Confederation government allowed states to manage their own economic and taxation policies. Thus, the states were permitted to print their own paper money (Johnson). The states took full advantage of this and printed more bills to pay off
States had much more power at their feet than ever before. An example of this was that the states had a great deal of control over politics. One such power was that every colony or state was allowed one vote in Congress (93). Furthermore, the colonies needed a united vote if any amendments were to be made to the Articles of Confederation (Davis). Because there was no national court system under the Confederation, the states resolved controversies amongst themselves. Moreover, the excess power that the Articles placed on the states was with the enforcement of laws; the states had the freedom to enforce any laws they saw fit. Giving states too much power in politics led to chaos that the national government absolutely had no control over (Johnson). Another example of the disarray of domestic affairs was the failure of a successful military. During the American Revolution, the Continental Army was moderate, but once the war was won, the military was largely demobilized (Alden 109). Only a small national force protected the country. The United States’ dream was to build a unified war-making regime, but it was a complete failure, especially after the Revolution (111). America’s dream went spiraling down until there was no hope of a centralized army. The Articles of Confederation government continued