Essential Questions 1. Why did Americans choose not only to break from Britain, but adopt a republican form of government in 1776? What Republican ideas did they share, and what did they disagree about? The Americans chose to break from Britain for a lot of different reasons. But the main reason was they wanted freedom from parliament; they did not want to be governed from overseas, they got sick and tired of the taxation and laws. They adopted the republican government because they did want to be a monarchy or dictatorship; America wanted the “people to rule” the country. They saw how a monarchy worked and did not want to be trapped in the same position Britain’s king was in. America and Britain had similarities and differences in …show more content…
The Articles were very weak and instable; they were not capable of keeping the country together for very long. The Articles for example were Unicameral, while the Constitution was bicameral. It was just not as strong as the Constitution. The Article did not even have an Executive Branch. United States would definitely not have come to its position it’s in today with the Articles of Confederations. Just look at their way of entering states to the Union, they have to get all of the 9 states to agree on entering it. But that’s not the hard part, the hard part is imagining having to get this news across to every state, it would be a very long Process. While the Constitution just makes Congress enter any new states. America has definitely been a lot better off with United States Constitution! 4. What where the basic features of the new Constitution, and how did they differ from the government under the Articles of Confederation? The new Constitution had a lot of differences from the Articles of Confederations, all of them were better because the Constitution was a much more improved and well thought out form of a constitution. The basic features of the Constitution were “principles of popular sovereignty, limited government, civil rights and liberties, and separation of powers and checks and balances.” For example an Amendment is changed when ¾ of the states agree on it, rather than all of the states. Also, the Articles of the Confederations did not have an
The United States left the Articles of Confederation behind for a new more adapted constitution in 1788 due to more than one reason, however a main reason for the switch had to do with the power of the federal government. There would be some Libertarians that would hold the Articles to be the symbol of American freedom at its peak, however there were those that would later be known as Federalists that saw the Articles as a failure due to the lack of strong central government powers within the articles. The many differences between the two documents were each important in there own respect, the first one that come to mind would be the power to levy taxes, under the articles Congress could request that States pay taxes, but under the
Booker T. Washington once said, “Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.” In 1776, by David McCullough, this quote truly resonates the fact that it is the little things that count, as not necessarily the big picture. Although there are many pitfalls the Americans go through during the course of this story, the outcome of the war would be a positive success to the Americans. As a result, good leadership is a very important factor in accomplishing a goal. Also, encouragement is a big help when it comes to boosting a soldier’s morale. Furthermore, endurance is vital to an army
Though the American colonists had not achieved a true, uniform sense of identity or unity by 1776, on the eve of Revolution, the progress towards unity and the inchoate idea of an “American” between 1750 and 1776 is inevitable in both existence and significance. Previous to the French and Indian War, America as a whole had been, more or less, loyal mercantile-based, and subservient to the British crown as British colonists in the New World; however, the Americans' sense of unity kindled and proliferated with the increased tax burdens and coercive Parliamentary decisions, while even until 1776,
The Constitution and the Articles of Confederation are the same in ways, but they are also, both different. Both of them founded our Government systems, but only one system still remains today. Both systems have their flaws, but also have their advantages. Without the Articles, there would be no Constitution, and the United States would be under the control of a tyrant. The Articles lead us to war, and separated us from Great Britain and now are our own country.
They were a few shortcomings and advantages in the new government under the Articles of Confederation I would like to discuss. First of all the weaknesses that articles of confederation have gone through were certain people in the congress lacked leadership, could not tax, there militia or military was small, and one vote per state. The advantages they had were that they could borrow money and make peace also sign treaties. There were several sentiments and ideas. The “new vision want to make political authority legitimate and secure liberty” (Wilson, 2008, p.20). The system of government was established by articles to respect liberties given to them. Founding fathers replaced the document because certain states used the document for different
The Articles of Confederation was the first constitution of the United States. They were written during the revolutionary war to create a more unified government, and to establish what the national government could and could not do. The Articles let each state keep “sovereignty, freedom, and independence,” and created a very weak central government. For example, Congress could not regulate commerce or impose taxes. The impact that the Articles of Confederation had on federalism for the next few years was: the federal government had very few powers, and most of the authority remained in control of each individual state.
First, the Articles of Confederation were viewed as an overall weakness. It did not allow congress to obtain really any power over the people; therefore we had a weak central government. Congress was not granted the power that they needed in order to keep things in order,“Probably the most unfortunate part of the Articles of confederation were that the central government could not prevent one state from discriminating against other states in the quest for foreign commerce.” (Ginsberg, et. al. 2014: 35). States were rebelling and our new found country was in chaos and our Congress was not able to prevent states from discriminating against other states. For example, another downfall to this document was that, “The Articles of Confederation were concerned
The Articles of Confederation, although a big first step, had more weaknesses than strengths. In fact, the major downfall of the Articles of Confederation was its weakness. Under the Articles, the federal government had little power and was too weak to enforce any laws. The Articles gave Congress the power to pass new laws but they did not have any power to enforce them. If a state decided that they did not want to follow a law then they could just ignore it. Congress also had no power to regulate trade or levy taxes and without an executive leader or federal court system there was no way to enforce anything. Another large downfall of the Articles of Confederation is that to Amend it required a unanimous decision which in most cases is extremely difficult. Because the Articles of Confederation are often considered a failure, it’s easy to look past the achievements of the American government under those Articles. The most important piece of legislation passed under the Articles of Confederation is the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. This Ordinance provided the guidelines by which new states would use to be admitted into the Union. Judges and Governors appointed by Congress would oversee a territory until there was five-thousand free male citizens of voting age. The citizens would then elect a territorial legislature, which sent a non-voting delegate to Congress. When the population hit sixty-thousand, the territorial legislature would be eligible to submit a state constitution,
David McCullough’s novel 1776 is a compelling story of America’s war for independence. We have all read chapters and heard the related history of the war of 1776, but David McCullough takes the epic story even further. The book covers the entire year of 1776 from the beginning of the war until the end. The author provides an extremely detailed description of both sides of the conflict both American and British. David McCullough is a renowned author and historian and has twice won the Pulitzer Prize for two of his novels; John Adams and Truman, and with reading 1776 you can see exactly why he is so celebrated. His
“Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.” This quote in a letter to James Madison, from George Washington, on March 2nd, 1788, explains that once the push for liberty comes through and change is made, it is like the snowball effect. At this point of the war, there were constant losses for the Continental Army they were lacking faith and hope for their liberty. The soldier’s enlistments were also very near to their end and time was going by fast; many were prepared to leave and not signing up again. Overall, the Continental Army was headed towards failure. They needed something to give them a push in the right direction. The battle that raised high spirits in the army was The
The Articles of Confederation was the United State’s first constitution, it was written in an effort to unite the states after the American Revolution and served as a blueprint for the modern constitution. In order for the Articles to become official, they had to be approved by all thirteen colonies. Although Congress sent the Articles of Confederation to the states around the end of 1777 to become ratified, they were not officially adopted until March 1, 1781. Under these Articles, the states remained sovereign and independent, with Congress serving as the last resort on appeal of disputes. The American people feared a strong national government and as a result of this, the Articles of Confederation were specifically designed to be weak in the sense that each state maintains its own sovereignty and all rights to govern themselves, with the except of the rights exclusively granted to Congress. Since the Articles lacked many necessary components to keep a nation properly structured, they were eventually revised into the constitution we recognize today. Although, the Articles of Confederation seemed as though it only contained weaknesses, within the document, many strengths and accomplishments were made. Overall, the Articles of Confederation were proven to be both efficient and non-efficient during the time period they were in effect.
Compare and contrast the Articles of confederation and the Constitution, especially in regard to the specific powers granted to the national government.The formation and ideals of the Articles of Confederation and its successor, the Unites States Constitution, varied from each other in terms of a stronger or weaker federal government in dealing with issues. The Constitution gave more power to the federal government, while the Articles of Confederation involved a very weak government with primary rights interests of the individual states as the focus. Both gave Congress legislative power and set up departments that would eventually be incorporated into the president’s cabinet. The formation of the Articles of Confederation was of the
“The Constitution devotes the national domain to union, to justice, to defense, to welfare and to liberty” (Maier 154). This quote, stated by William Henry Seward, displays the strength and stability that the Constitution had over the nation, and the liberty and justice it supplied for all of its citizens. Although the Constitution and the Articles of Confederation have similarities, they have many differences, which proved that the Articles of Confederation were a weaker document in comparison. It can be said that the Articles were the “rough draft” to the final living document, which significantly influenced and “ruled” our government, as it still does today.
The failure of the Articles of Confederation help the founders to create a more stable government system with the Constitution. The flaws in the Articles helped them make changes that made the new system very effective. Under the Constitution, Congress had a right to levy taxes (Feldmeth). This fixed the problem of the government always running short on funds because they could only request taxes from the government. They were also able to raise an army to deal with threats, something they were not able to do under the Articles. States are more evenly represented under the Constitution instead of being
If you try to compare the Articles with the new Constitution, you realize that the former was full of drawbacks, while the latter had answers to all these drawbacks. The Articles was subjected to severe criticism for the very fact that it centralized all the powers in the hands of state government, and left the national government with no major powers at all. As opposed to the unicameral system which was facilitated by the Articles of Confederation, the US Constitution introduced the bicameral system of governance, which was divided into the upper house and lower house. Yet another difference between the two was pertaining to the number of votes each state had. While the Articles had a provision of one vote for every single state irrespective of its size, the US Constitution had the provision of one vote per representative or senator.