Why Did the Articles of Confederation Fail


Articles of confederation

The major problems of the Articles of confederation that will be addressed here are:

?       Each State had One Vote in Congress.

?       Nine States needed to pass most Legislation

?       Congress could not administer the Trade

Articles of Confederation Fail Why Did the Articles of Confederation Fail

?       The United States could not build up its own revenue

?       The Congress could not organize its laws

?       The Government of the United States was a Single body

?       The Congress could not suppress insurrection or rebellion, or save the Nation from international threats.

?       Amendments required a Unanimous Vote

Internal Financial Problems:

?      The new federal government was faced with a huge bill from having fought the War for Independence

?    The Articles prohibited the levying of taxes—Congress just ask for money from the states, however these requests were ignored or not paid in full

?     So, to pay for the war simply more money was printed – this led to rapid inflation

?      Issues of inflation were compounded by the fact that individual states printed their own currencies

Political Problems:

?     The federal government left state governments responsible for the compensation of Loyalists (colonists who supported the British) who lost property in the Independence War.

  • The state governments were in disarray and had slight money themselves just after the war, so they were quite slow to act in compensating Loyalists
  • As a consequence, British soldiers declined to abandon their posts in the United States on grounds that they were protecting the Loyalists’ rights

Lack of Government Power

The lacked Articles of confederation a strong central government.The articles allowed the states to have control over themselves and therefore they did very little to unite the states. Because a strong central government was lacking, it was very difficult for the government to make and enforce policies.

Final Thoughts

The Articles of Confederation were the first attempt at a very young Nation to make a Government to preserve as much liberty and Freedom as possible. In the end they achieved the preservation of freedom and Liberty but failed to provide enough structure to maintain it. Each State could operate on its own, pass its own laws and rules for trade, provide for it own defense in limited manners, but for the Government of all the States the Government lacked the power needed to preserve and protect the common interests of all. These lessons would not be lost on the young nation as with the new consitution  written in 1787, would fix these problems, and others, once again to maximize Freedom and Liberty for all, while providing the collective structure to preserve and protect it

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