Articles of Confederation
Why it's Good and Bad!
Why it's good
- it showed that the United States could start at least some form of government on it's own!
- was able to build and control an army
- had the ability to deal with foreign countries on behalf of the states
What's it like?
- it was a document drawn up by the Second Continental Congress
- included a unified army for the states
- set up a legislature where each state had one vote
Why it wasn't so good (and eventually led to Shay's Rebellion)
- the National Government couldn't enforce laws so even if they were ratified, the states could basically ignore them
- the national government couldn't tax
- 9 out of 13 states were needed to pass a law, 13 out of 13 states were needed to amend a law
- there were no executive or judicial branches
- states were suffering economically when states started to tax one another because it hurt trade