Articles of confederation

Articles of confederation From 1781 to 1789 the Articles of Confederation did not provide the United States with an effective government. The remarkably weak central government provoked a hostile environment within the United States and led to the diminishing of the country politically and economically.Under the Articles of Confederation, tensions in the United States threatened peace and unity. With such a weak and powerless central government, the states acted as individual countries. Numerous states had no choice but to cede land to the federal government. This was the result of the inability of the states to control territories which were too spread out too far. In Document E, it is made apparent that New York had to yield most of its Midwest territory. In 1785, Massachusetts gave up parts of Michigan formally owned by New York four years earlier. If land was not ceded, war would have been a likely result between the states.The Articles of Conferderation, ratified in 1781. ...The Articles established a na tional legislature called the Congress, consisting of two to seven delegates from each state; each state had one vote, according to its size or population. No executive or judicial branches were provided for. Congress was charged with responsibility for conducting foreign relations, declaring war or peace, maintaining an army and navy, settling boundary disputes, establishing and maintaining a postal service, and variouslesser functions.Some of these responsibilities were shared with the states, and in one way or another Congress was dependent upon the cooperation of the states for carrying out any of them. Four visible weaknesses of the articles, apart from those of organization, made it impossible for Congress to execute its constitutional duties.These were analyzed in numbers 15-22 of The FEDERALIST, the political essays in which Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay argued the case for the U.S. CONSTITUTION...