Articles of Confederation?

Question

I have to write a 1 page summary on why the articles of confederation failed, but I have no idea what to write.
Can you help me by telling me what things I focus on and can you tell me some reasons why it failed?
Thanks soo much

Answer 1

I had to do the same thing for my class, so I'll just give you what I wrote for my essay. The question I had to answer for my essay was " Do you think that the United States would have become a world power if the Articles of Confederation had remained the basis of government?" But the information in my essay will help you write yours. Good Luck! Here's my essay:

A confederation is defined as an alliance permitting states or nations to act together on matters of mutual concern. The Articles of Confederation was a document that outlines the first form of government in the United States. This document was adopted by the Second Continental Congress in 1777 and finally approved by the 13 states in 1781. Although the Articles of Confederation was created to bring together the 13 states, it in truth separated them even more.
The Articles of Confederation gave more power to the states than it did to the government. Congress could not enact and collect taxes, and so the government could not raise enough money if there was a war. In addition, new articles could be amended only if all states approved. There were no national court systems to settle legal disputes. But most importantly, there were 13 separate states that lacked national unity. They were all independent and very unlike.
I do not think the United States would have become a world power if the Articles of Confederation had remained in the basis of government. All it really did was give most of the power, if not all, to the states. If the Articles of Confederation were still abided by, the United States would not have survived. The Articles of Confederation gave the states power over taxation, so if they needed to raise money for a war effort, they could not, because the did not have the power to raise taxes.
In conclusion, I am glad that the United States Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation. The Constitution guaranteed freedom to the states as well as power to the government concerning key matters.

Answer 2

In looking at this you should focus on the struggle for the ratification of the US constitution which essentially was embraced by even those who disagreed with it because the Articles of Confederation were almost universally seen to be inadequate.

The cost of winning independence had been high at around 160 million dollars. The articles of Confederation prevented congress from enacting a tax to raise this money.
The individual states exercised too much power overall and the central government was very week.

Answer 3

First-- have you read the Articles of Confederation? If not, you should. Then, after you have, think about the Constitution and how it differs.

For instance--this is a give away--the Articles of Confederation failed in one instance because they were too constrained. They dealt with English customs, laws, and political workings, in a new land where England was no longer desired as a central rule. The Constitution is a living document because it's still in use today, it can be changed and adapted, and added on to accomodate present-day issues.

Hope that gets you started.

Answer 4

articles of confederation was the same thing as the Contitution in our early govnment
the ideas it was based around were that the government would have a weak central government and stronger state government because they did not want the central government to become a monarchy again [monarhcy is what started the rev. war]

this document gave too much power to the states and the central govenment did not have enough.
a good example of how it failed is shays rebellion
farmers were rebeling against the govenments high taxes
the central government had no power to stop the rebellion

poeple later meet to revise this document where they ended up writing the contitution

Answer 5

Was And don't always trust "Word". I find it makes lots of mistakes. This time however it says its right in this sentence: "The Articles of Confederation was a document that preceded the Constitution." You would use "were" in this instance: The Articles of Confederation and other documents were in the Smithsonian museum but now they are in the Library of Congress.

Answer 6

Go to this website:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Articles_of_Confederation.

One reason why the AOC failed is because of Federalists and Antifederalists. Another is because it gave the states to much power. It happened in like the 1700's and a bunch of people agreed on it.

Answer 7

Focus on

Who wrote it
Who signed it
what it was about
when it was made

write more on the one that sounds easy ;-)