Sam+W



The Articles of Confederation were mainly needed after the Declaration of Independence was signed so we would have some kind of centeral government to run by to cause us to be a better nation. Another reason to have the Articles of Confederation was because we needed to conduct foreign afairs such as treaties and trading. The main reason that we made the Articles of Confederation's centeral government so weak was to give the people and the states the most power in our nation. The reason we wanted to give all the power to the people was because of what happened to us when we were governed by Great Britain. We had almost no freedom when governed by Great Britain. The Articles of Confederation made a loose confederation of independent states that hardly gave any power to the centeral government. The national government consisted of one house of congress, where each state would have one vote. When attempting to have a weak centeral government with powerful states and people, the Second Continental Congress created a national government without enough power to run an entire nation. That caused many serious national and international problems. The greatest weakness of the Articles of Confederation was that the congress couldn't regulate trade or levy taxes. Sometimes people would not give the government any of the money that it needed to get by because they didn't have to pay taxes. Some people say the government was effective because of what the congress was shooting for. They definately gave the state legislatures the most power. Most people argue though that the Articles were not effective for the reason that the national government was not powerful enough. In my mind they were ineffective in as many ways possible but Congress did get what they weree aiming for with the weak national government.
 * Why were the Articles of the Confederation needed?**
 * How Effective were the Articles of Confederation?**