Part of a flip lecture on the Articles of Confederation

1. The Articles of Confederation
And why they went wrong

2. Disclaimer
View this presentation in chunks, don’t try to do
it all at once!
Take notes only on bolded terms.
Compare notes with your classmates.

3. THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION

4. Origins
• June 1776- The Second Continental Congress
• Richard Henry Lee (VA) proposes 3 things:
– A Declaration of Independence
– Forming alliances with other Europeans
– Plan a confederation of the thirteen colonies

6. Origins
• June 1776- The Second Continental Congress
• Richard Henry Lee (VA) proposes 3 things:
– A Declaration of Independence
– Forming alliances with other Europeans
– Plan a confederation of the thirteen colonies

7. Confederation
• A group of sovereign states loosely join together
to provide for national defense, conduct foreign
affairs and promote each others’ well-beings
• Very weak central government as the majority of
power belonged to the states
• They are technically not one country, but a group
of small nations joined together

8. Central Gov’t (weak)

9. Why?
• During colonization, the colonies were always
separate from each other
• Therefore, they consider themselves to be
their own country
• They viewed other states as foreign countries!

10. Also why?
• They were also a little weary of a strong
central government after dealing with the
British

11. The Articles
• In total, there are
thirteen articles.
Let’s do this!
(I recommend take a
break here if you’re
doing this in one shot)

12. The First Five
I. Establishes the name of the confederacy as the
“United States of America”
II. Affirms that all the states are sovereign (right to
rule themselves) except for powers given to the
central gov’t
III. Commitment issues- states that the USA is not a
nation, but a league of friend states
IV. Establishes equal treatment of people moving
from state to state
V. Each state gets one vote in congress

13. The Next Five
VI. Only the cent. gov’t can conduct foreign relations,
declare war. States cannot have standing armies
except if “infested with pirates”.
VII. Colonels and ranks below are appointed by state
legislatures
VIII. If the US spends money, the states are supposed to
pay based on the value of their land.
IX. Lists powers of the cen. gov’t
X. The Committee of the States can act as the gov’t
when the Congress is in recess

14. The Last Three
XI. If Canada wants to join, they can join
XII. Confederation accepts the war debts of the
Continental Congress
XIII. The Articles may be amended only by full
approval of ALL state legislatures

15. IT SOUNDS ALL DANDY BUT…
Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation

16. THE GOVERNMENT COULDN’T DO
ANYTHING!

17. Issue 1: Taxes
• The Congress couldn’t levy (raise) taxes
• They had to ask politely

18. Issue 2: Interstate Commerce
• Congress couldn’t regulate trade between the
states
• States could issue their own money

19. Issue 3: Enforcement of Laws
• You pretty much couldn’t enforce any laws the
Congress passed in the states

20. Issue 4: No standing army
• Since the Congress couldn’t tax the states,
there was no money to pay for an army
• So really, a guys with a bunch of pitchforks and
guns could probably cause a lot of trouble
hypothetically…. Hypothetically…

21. SHAYS’ REBELLION!
Second to last section I swear on tacos

22. Shays… Daniel Shays
I’ll take my rebellion shaken… not stirred

23. So what had happened was…
• Economic hardship hit much of post-
Revolution America, especially Massachusetts
• Come on, you knew it would’ve been
Massachusetts… them crazy people

24. Who did it hurt the most?
• The economic hardship hit rural farmers in
Massachusetts especially hard
• Many were unable to pay their debts due to a
lack of hard currency; this cost many to lose
their farms

25. Protest and Revolt
• Around 1786, these farmers began protests
not too different from those of the Revolution
• Once former Revolutionary War soldier Daniel
Shays took over, things got kinda violent
• Massachusetts was saved once a force paid by
merchants could put down the rebellion

26. Definitely not the Boston Massacre

27. Significance
• Showed the weakness of the central
government as they could not respond with
military aid to Massachusetts

28. But it wasn’t all bad…
• Land Ordinance of 1785
– Set up procedures on how to survey (map out and
create square borders) west of the Mississippi
• Northwest Ordinance of 1785
– States gave up claims to land to the west in order
for new states to be formed
– None of the states formed under the NWO
became slave states

29. In Conclusion
The government under the Articles of
Confederation was too weak to effectively
provide support to all of the states. Therefore,
calls came to create a new government that
could do what the Articles couldn’t.
This new government is the one we have today.