<P> The Articles of Confederation , formally the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union , was an agreement among the 13 original states of the United States of America that served as its first constitution . It was approved , after much debate ( between July 1776 and November 1777 ) , by the Second Continental Congress on November 15 , 1777 , and sent to the states for ratification . The Articles of Confederation came into force on March 1 , 1781 , after being ratified by all 13 states . A guiding principle of the Articles was to preserve the independence and sovereignty of the states . The federal government received only those powers which the colonies had recognized as belonging to king and parliament . </P>
the agreement over how states would be represented in congress was known as
Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union