Articles of Confederation
Advantages & Disadvantages
There are always advantages and disadvantages to certain things, including the
Articles of Confederation. I will tell you more about that as you read along. The "Articles of Confederation" were created by the Second Continental Congress. Although they were shaky and unstable, there were some advantages, as well as disadvantages, to them.
These articles included a unified army for the states and set up a legislature where each state had one vote. They also made building and controlling an army possible, along with the ability to deal with foreign countries on behalf of the states. A weak central government was also put into place. These are all positive things that the Articles brought to the table, but there are many weaknesses too. The Articles of Confederation prevented the national government to enforce laws, so even if ratified, the states could ignore them completely. They also prevented the government from taxing. Some more down sides to the Articles was the fact that 9 out of 13 states had to approve in order to pass a law, and needed all 13 in order to amend a law. There was no Judicial or Executive branch, and the Articles caused the states to suffer economically due to each state taxing one another and hurting trade. Although these things aren't so good, they had to happen in order for our constitution today to be more improved and stable, and better than what it was before to create a more successful and unified nation. I believe the concept of a weak central government was created so the people didn't have a government controlling them. Most people came to the America's for freedom, so why would they want to be controlled all over again?