 Colonies’ first attempts to establish a national
government
 Written in 1776-1777 during the American Revolution
by the Second Continental Congress
 Enforced from March 1, 1781 to June 21, 1788
 Replaced by the current U.S. Constitution
 Original proposal written by John Dickinson
 Asked for a strong central
government, but really was weak
 Altered greatly by the states
before ratification
 Three years passed before
all states approved (fighting
over western land claims)
 Confederation of States
 Each state had one vote in congress
 Regardless of population or number of
representatives
 Individual State Court System
 Voted on nearly all of congress’s
decisions
 National government
 Unicameral (1) house of Congress
 Had control over armed forces and
western territories
 Could request financial donations from
states; COULD NOT LEVY TAXES
 Passing laws required 9 of 13 states’ consent
 Amending the Articles required approval from
congress and unanimous approval from the states

 Central Government had no power over states
 Couldn’t enforce taxation
 Couldn’t coin money
 Couldn’t regulate trade within US or with foreign
nations
 Difficult to make laws or amendments
 No national leadership
 Established a central government and a method for law
making.
 Northwest Ordinances
 Established system for addition of new states
 Ultimately, the territory was organized into the
present states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and
Wisconsin
 The government could not require the British Government





to live up to The Treaty of Paris
It was not effective in persuading the Spanish to allow
Americans access to New Orleans to the sea.
It could not levy taxes to support an army( states had these
rights)
Policies concerning Native American were not effective
because more and more settlers began to push west.
Most of the power rested with the states.( economics)
<iframe width="560" height="315"
src="//www.youtube.com/embed/54frRVRv1Mw"
frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The state of Massachusetts decides to put a tax on the
people to repay the loans in their state. Shay’s
Rebellion takes place because farmers can’t afford to
pay the taxes, so they would lose their farms. Daniel
Shay and 1,200 other farmers rebel against the
government because of heavy taxes.
The significance of this rebellion is that it
showed the weak central govt. under the
Articles of Confederation weren’t working.
They knew something had to be done.
 Representatives from 12 states met in Philadelphia in
1787 to REVISE the Articles
 All changes had to be approved by congress and the
states before taking effect
 Resulted in the present-day constitution after
throwing out Articles
 Country in economic
depression
 Process established by
 Govt. lacks power to do
the Northwest ordinance
anything
 States unwilling to
 States disputed over
borders and tariffs on
imported goods
surrender freedoms
 Bigger states and smaller
states are in turmoil over
representation in
Congress
 Proposed a strong national Government
 Bicameral (2 house) legislature
 small states objected this plan
 The more people a state has, the more representatives
it gets in the legislature
 Proposed by William Patterson
 Proposed a stronger national Government
 Unicameral Legislature
 Small states preferred this plan, because each state
gets the same number of representatives.
 Recommended by Roger Sherman
 An agreement between large and small states reached
during the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 that in
part defined the legislative structure and
representation that each state would have under the
United States Constitution.
 The Great Compromise combined these two plans
creating our current legislature with two houses, one
based on population and elected by the people(House
of Representatives) and the other house allowing two
senators per state being appointed by state
legislatures.
 The Senate would have an equal number of
representatives from each state. This would satisfy the
states with smaller populations. The House of
Representatives would include one representative for
each 30,000 individuals in a state. This pleased states
with larger populations.
 Compromise over how to count slaves in the
population
 Each slave was counted as 3/5 of a person in
determining population of a state for representation
purposes
 Ex: if there were 100 slaves in a state only 60 would be
counted towards the population.
Articles of
Confederation
Constitution
 Unanimous state consent for
 ¾ states approval needed
amendments
 Single house- 2-7 reps per state
 No separate executive branch-
president of congress had
limited powers
 States levy taxes
 Took unanimous consent
required to ratify it.
 2 houses- upper with set number
of reps per state and lower based
on population
 Separate executive branch
established
 Federal government can levy
taxes
 took consent of 9 states to ratify
it.