The Articles of Confederation | Period 3: 1754-1800 | AP US History | Khan Academy
Summary
TLDRIn this video, Kim and Leah discuss the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the United States. They explain its creation during the American Revolution and highlight its limited government structure, which lacked executive and judicial branches. While it successfully united the states and helped end the Revolutionary War, its weaknesses became apparent, especially during Shays' Rebellion, when the government couldn't raise taxes or a military. This led to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, where the founding fathers drafted the stronger, current U.S. Constitution.
Takeaways
- 📜 The Articles of Confederation were the first constitution of the United States, created in 1777 during the American Revolution.
- ⚖️ The Articles emphasized limited government, with a very small central government to avoid the abuses of monarchy.
- 🏛️ There was no executive or judicial branch under the Articles, and Congress was the only body representing all 13 states.
- 🗳️ Changing the Articles required unanimous consent from all 13 states, making it difficult to pass amendments or laws.
- ⚔️ The Articles helped the U.S. end the Revolutionary War through the Treaty of Paris in 1783, uniting the 13 colonies under one government.
- 🌍 The Northwest Ordinance of 1787, passed under the Articles, provided guidelines for westward expansion and land management.
- 📉 A key issue with the Articles was that the federal government couldn’t levy taxes, leading to financial difficulties.
- 💸 Shays' Rebellion in 1786 exposed the weaknesses of the Articles, as the government couldn't raise an army or pay soldiers from the war.
- 👥 The rebellion led influential figures like George Washington and James Madison to realize the need for a stronger central government.
- 📝 In 1787, the Constitutional Convention was held to replace the Articles with a new Constitution, which provided a more balanced federal system.
Q & A
What were the Articles of Confederation?
-The Articles of Confederation were the first constitution of the United States, created in 1777 during the American Revolution, designed to form a government that looked as different from a monarchy as possible.
Why was the federal government under the Articles of Confederation designed to be small?
-The federal government was kept small because the framers wanted to avoid any resemblance to the monarchy they were rebelling against. This led to the creation of a very limited central government.
What branches of government were missing under the Articles of Confederation?
-The Articles of Confederation lacked both an executive branch and a judicial branch, leaving Congress as the sole governmental body, which was made up of representatives from all 13 states.
How difficult was it to pass laws or amendments under the Articles of Confederation?
-Passing laws required the approval of 9 out of 13 states, and amending the Articles required unanimous consent from all 13 states, making it very difficult to enact changes.
What were some positive accomplishments of the Articles of Confederation?
-The Articles helped unite the 13 colonies under one government and successfully passed the Treaty of Paris in 1783, which ended the Revolutionary War. It also passed the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which established a process for western expansion.
What was the main problem with the Articles of Confederation as the country grew?
-As the country grew, the Articles of Confederation proved insufficient for addressing issues related to governance and economic growth, including the lack of centralized power and difficulties in managing growing pains as new territories were added.
What event highlighted the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation?
-Shays' Rebellion in Massachusetts exposed the weaknesses of the Articles, particularly the federal government's inability to raise taxes, pay debts, or field a national army to suppress the rebellion.
Why couldn't the federal government under the Articles of Confederation pay its debts or maintain a military?
-The federal government lacked the power to levy or collect taxes, which left it unable to pay its debts or fund a national military, relying instead on state militias.
Who were some of the founding fathers that pushed for a new constitution?
-George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison were among the key figures who recognized the need to replace the Articles of Confederation with a stronger central government.
What was the result of Shays' Rebellion and other problems under the Articles of Confederation?
-The problems highlighted by Shays' Rebellion led to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, where leaders drafted a new constitution to create a stronger federal government, ultimately replacing the Articles of Confederation.
Outlines
🏛 Introduction to the Articles of Confederation
The conversation begins with an introduction to the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the United States, which predates the current constitution established in 1789. The historical context is set during the American Revolution in 1777, where the focus was on creating a government system that was distinctly different from a monarchy. The Articles were designed to establish a limited government with a very small central government, lacking an executive or judicial branch, and consisting solely of a Congress with one representative from each of the 13 states. The process for amending the Articles required unanimous consent from all states, which was a significant hurdle. The need for at least nine states' approval to pass laws is likened to the difficulty of achieving consensus among a group of people.
🛑 The Challenges and Achievements of the Articles of Confederation
Despite the challenges, the Articles of Confederation were instrumental in uniting the 13 colonies under one government, which was crucial for passing treaties such as the Treaty of Paris in 1783, ending the Revolutionary War. They also enabled the passage of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which laid out plans for westward expansion and land management. However, the system faced growing pains as the country expanded. The realization that the Articles were inadequate was sparked by Shays' Rebellion, an armed uprising led by Daniel Shays and other farmers in Massachusetts who were upset over unpaid wages and high state taxes. The central government, as established by the Articles, lacked the ability to levy taxes to repay the farmers and had no military to quell the rebellion, highlighting the need for a stronger central authority. This led to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, where leaders like George Washington, Ben Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison recognized the need for a new constitution to address these issues.
🏗 The Need for a New Constitution
The final part of the script discusses the decision to move away from the Articles of Confederation towards a new constitution. Despite the initial aversion to monarchy, the leaders of the United States recognized the necessity of a stronger central government. This realization was prompted by the inability of the Articles to effectively handle financial and military challenges, such as raising funds and maintaining a standing army. The Constitutional Convention of 1787 was convened to draft a new constitution that would better serve the needs of a growing nation.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Articles of Confederation
💡Limited Government
💡Shays' Rebellion
💡Northwest Ordinance of 1787
💡Central Government
💡Federal Government vs. State Governments
💡Unanimous Consent
💡Treaty of Paris (1783)
💡Constitutional Convention
💡Monarchy
Highlights
The Articles of Confederation were the first constitution of the United States, adopted in 1777 during the American Revolution.
A major focus of the Articles was to avoid creating a powerful central government similar to the monarchy the colonies had rebelled against.
The Articles of Confederation created a limited central government with no executive or judicial branches and a very weak Congress.
Each state had one representative in Congress, and unanimous consent from all 13 states was required to amend the Articles.
For laws to pass, nine out of 13 states needed to agree, which made decision-making difficult and slow.
Despite its flaws, the Articles of Confederation successfully united the 13 states under one government during the early years of the country.
The Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War in 1783, was negotiated under the government formed by the Articles of Confederation.
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787, passed under the Articles, established guidelines for westward expansion and how new territories could become states.
One of the major weaknesses of the Articles was the inability of Congress to levy taxes, which left the government without funds to pay its debts or maintain a military.
Shays' Rebellion in 1786-1787 exposed the inability of the central government to suppress armed uprisings due to its lack of military power.
The rebellion highlighted the failure of the Articles of Confederation to provide an effective national government, leading to widespread calls for reform.
The founders, including George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison, recognized the need for a stronger federal government.
The Constitutional Convention of 1787 was called in response to the failure of the Articles of Confederation to address the country's needs.
The leaders at the Constitutional Convention drafted a new constitution that established a stronger central government while still avoiding the concentration of power seen in a monarchy.
The new Constitution, which replaced the Articles of Confederation, has been the framework for the United States government since 1789.
Transcripts
- [Instructor] Hey, this is Kim and I'm here with Leah,
Khan Academy's US Government and Politics Fellow.
Welcome Leah.
- [Leah] How's it going?
- [Kim] Alright, so we're talking about
the Articles of Confederation,
which I think many people don't realize
was the first constitution of the United States
before the one that we have now since 1789.
So could you take us through a little bit
what the Articles of Confederation were
and the context in which we first brought them on
as a governmental system?
- [Leah] Sure, so I think the most important thing
to understand about the Articles of Confederation
and why we would talk about this
is because one of the biggest debates that we have
in our history is about the balance of power
between the federal government and state governments.
When the Articles of Confederation were first created,
it was in the middle of the American Revolution.
They were created in 1777, and so the question becomes,
well, how can we run a government
that looks as different from monarchy as possible?
- [Kim] Right, so they're trying to run away from the past
that they're getting away from in the Revolutionary War
and trying to create a separate government
that doesn't have any of those abuses
that they are rebelling against.
- [Leah] If they're running away from a monarchy,
what they're running towards
is what we would call limited government.
- [Kim] OK.
- [Leah] So their central government,
which is synonymous with a federal government,
the central government is actually
really, really, really small.
- [Kim] OK.
- [Leah] They don't have an executive branch.
They only have Congress.
They don't even have a judicial branch.
So Congress is made up of all 13 states.
Every state had one representative.
- [Kim] OK.
- [Leah] In order to change the Articles of Confederation,
if they wanted to pass an amendment,
they had to get unanimous consent from all 13 states.
- [Kim] OK, so they're trying to make sure
that all of the states are represented equally,
but that also sounds like it would have a lot of hurdles
to overcome when it comes to getting consensus.
- [Leah] Yeah, for laws, you had to get nine
out of 13 states to actually pass a law.
So if you can imagine, if you're in a room of 13 people
and you all have to agree on one pizza topping
for the rest of your lives. (Kim laughs)
It would be almost impossible, right?
- [Kim] Wow, OK, alright, so it sounds like
there are some problems with the Articles of Confederation,
but did they do anything good for us in this early period?
- [Leah] Yeah, so the biggest thing
is that it unites all 13 colonies who are now states
under one government.
- [Kim] OK.
- [Leah] This government is able to pass
a really favorable treaty with Britain
and end the Revolutionary War in 1783, the Treaty of Paris.
- [Kim] OK, so this is kind of the government
that gets us through the revolutionary war
and is with us when we first start in the 1780s.
- [Leah] Yeah, and one another specific law that they pass
is the Northwest Ordinance of 1787
and this Northwest Ordinance kinda tells us
how we are going to expand as we move west
and what are we going to do with that land,
and that's a really important idea
when we're moving forward with our country.
The only problem is with the Articles of Confederation
is there is a lot of things that we still have to figure out
as we're growing, there's a lot of growing pains.
- [Kim] So what led the early government
of the United States to realize
that they wanted to abandon these Articles of Confederation
in favor of a different constitution?
- [Leah] So the inciting incident is Shays' Rebellion.
It happens in Massachusets, and it's a group of farmers
led by this guy named Daniel Shays.
What's happening is that we had just gotten out of
the Revolutionary War, and a lot of of the people
who had fought in the Revolutionary War
still hadn't gotten payment for their duty.
They also were experiencing really high state taxes,
so Daniel Shays and these farmers are very upset, obviously,
in their wanting their money and so they started rebelling,
but the problem is, with the way that the central government
that was built, first, Congress had no ability
to levy or collect taxes.
If they couldn't collect taxes,
they had no ability to actually pay back their farmers.
Along with that, they didn't have any money
to create a military, so each state had their own militia,
but the United States as a whole as a country
did not have a military to suppress this rebellion.
So on both ends, we are in
a really bad situation politically.
- [Kim] Wow, so, there's this moment
where you find armed rebellion against the United States
for a lack of money and the US government
finds that it can't raise money
and it can't raise an army to put down this rebellion.
- [Leah] Exactly, and so there is this fear immediately.
And what we see is a lot of the founding fathers
that we know and really respect today like George Washington
and Ben Franklin and Alexander Hamilton and James Madison,
they get together and they say this is a problem,
we need to change what we have,
and this leads to the Constitutional Convention
in which we draft our second constitution.
- [Kim] Right, yeah, so in 1787,
the leaders of the United States get together and say,
alright, the Articles of Confederation aren't working.
We're gonna need a stronger central government,
even though we were trying to get away from the monarchy
and now let's think of something
that's going to work a little bit better for us.
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