Aticles Of Confederation Dbq

The beginning of the 1780's starts off the decade on the right foot. The surrender at Yorktown ends the war with Great Britain, the Bank of North America is established, the treaty of Paris finalizes the peace with United states and Great Britain, and on March 1, 1781 Maryland ratifies the Articles of Confederation which establishes the first formal government of the United States. But, did the Articles actually help the U.S. run an effective government? No, due to the many overlooked flaws for example the unanimous votes needed to amend the articles and it's inability to regulate commerce. But the Articles were essential to the progress and creation of an effective government.. It was the first error in the trial-by-error policy. The articles helped political leaders realize the need for something better and in September the right answer came : The U.S. Constitution(draft).

The Articles of Confederation had a few favorable aspects. It put an end to the Revolutionary War and negotiated favorable results in the Treaty of Paris. It made the amount of exports to Great Britain increase more so than before. The articles also created a framework for the admittance of new territories with help of the Northwest Ordinance. Another demand of the Articles said that a state must return any runaway criminals to their rightly state which helped insure justice. Trade with Spain is also established in eastern seaports due to the threat of Americas migration westward and the help of Great Britains insistence and commercial interests of the Northeast. The Articles were mostly developed for and by the radicals of this time period and pacified their feebleminded demands.

Radicals argued the need for protection of the sovereign rights of states and providing a congress to provide for common defense. They didn't want the central government to have the right to tax or regulate commerce or have supreme rights over the states. The radicals got what they wanted and more. Utter chaos and political confusion actually jeopardized their rights. Conservatives were out raged by this and eventually convinced the U.S. that they actually needed a more centralized government.

One of the largest flaws in the Articles was unanimous vote required to change the articles. So when colonies did recognize a flaw in this composition it was near impossible to fix it. The colonies were very distrusting and not caring towards the other colonies. And since there is usually a beneficiary to every problem saw no reason to change the articles and no need for anything to be fixed which only added to the selfishness of the "segregated" colonies.

Colonists

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