n Essential Question Question What were the longterm

n Essential Question: Question –What were the long-term problems with the Articles of Confederation? n Warm-Up Question: –Now that the Americans won the Revolutionary War & are now a free and independent country, what questions are still left to be answered?

The Articles of Confederation

A pure would put too much Thedemocracy Articles of Confederation power in the hands of the “uneducated mob” n When Americans declared independence in 1776, they needed to form a new government: –They wanted to form a republic where citizens vote for Theelected American leaders to representrepublic them would be a more –They wanted to protect citizens & “enlightened” individual states fromversion a powerful of the national government. Roman Senate

Thirteen Independent States When independence was declared, the 13 colonies became independent states But, the USA needed a national gov’t to do things that states could not, like sign treaties & form a military Each state had its own constitution, legislature, & an elected governor; 8 states had Bills of Rights

The Articles of Confederation America’s 1 st national gov’t was the Articles of Confederation (1777 -1789) This “confederation” style gov’t loosely connected the states under a weak national government

Each state could send between 2 -7 representatives to the national congress, but each state had only 1 vote Government Structure To pass a law, 9 of the 13 states had to agree

The national congress could make laws, settle disputes between states, negotiate treaties, handle Indian affairs, oversee a military Government Powers But all other powers were left up to the states

Americans did not want to re-create a powerful gov’t like the one they just fought the Revolutionary War to break away from Government Powers So, the national gov’t had no president & could not tax the states or citizens

Western Land Claims, 1783 Western Lands, 1783 The lands between the Appalachian Mountains & Mississippi River that were acquired from the British in 1783 were claimed by numerous states. Many of these land claims overlap. How should we solve this problem?

Successes of the Articles of Confederation

Areas. United of Settlement, The States, 1783 The Articles established a good system of settling western lands

Western Land Claims Ceded by the First, states had States to cede (give up) their claims to lands in the west to the national gov’t

Congress passed the Land Ordinance of 1785 to create an orderly way to divide the west into townships & farms Selling western lands was the only way the national gov’t could generate money since it did not have the power to tax

Section 16 of the each township Land Ordinance of 1785 was set aside for a public school

The Northwest Ordinance n The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 gave government to the territories: –When a territory had 5, 000 residents, it could create a self-governing legislature –When a territory had 60, 000 residents, it could apply to become a U. S. state –Slavery was outlawed in the NW

Closure Questions n The Articles of Confederation were created intentionally weak –What powers does the national government have? –What powers do the individual state governments have? –What problems do you predict will occur because of these political weaknesses?

n Essential Question: Question –What were the long-term problems with the Articles of Confederation? n Warm-Up Question: –Why did the early American leaders develop a national government as weak as the Articles of Confederation?

Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation Activity

The Weaknesses of the Articles n The Articles of Confederation was America’s 1 st form of gov’t: –The weakness of the national gov’t was originally seen as good because it eliminated tyranny –Later, these same weaknesses kept the gov’t from solving serious national problems

Economic Problems n The inability of the government to collect taxes led to problems: –America could not pay off debts from the Revolutionary War –Property foreclosures led an uprising among Massachusetts farmers called Shays’ Rebellion in 1787 but the gov’t could not pay for an army to stop it

U. S. Trade with Britain, 1783 -1789 Debt

Shay’s Rebellion Shays’ Rebellion proved to be thein convincing event that led to the western Constitutional Convention of 1787 Massachusetts n Poor farmers in western MA were angered over high taxes & prospect of debtors jail n Daniel Shays led an uprising & closed debt courts & threatened a federal arsenal

America’s First National Government: The Articles of Confederation

Weaknesses of the Articles n After Shays’ Rebellion, people like Hamilton & Madison began calling for a stronger national gov’t n In 1787, delegates met in Philadelphia to discuss ways to improve the Articles n Instead of revising the Articles of Confederation, the delegates replaced it with the Constitution

Closure Activity n In his speech to the students of America, President Obama reminded us that failure isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as long as we learn from our mistakes –What lessons did Americans need to learn from the failures of the Articles of Confederation? –How might this early failure have been a good thing?