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Compare And Contrast Articles Of Confederation With The Constitution Of 1787

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The Articles of Confederation was the nation's governing document that was adopted in 1781. It was written to give the American people a government that had structure and organization. It had one major problem which gave too much power to the states and not enough power to Congress. In response, the Constitution of 1787 was written to expand federal power over the states. The Articles of Confederation was created to give the federal government reduced power compared to the states. Before the Articles of Confederation was written, the American Revolution was fought against an authoritarian empire, England. Consequently, the American colonists didn't want another tyrant empire to rule them, they wanted control. A written constitution was constructed to give the states more power over the federal government. States retained control and power over …show more content…

As a result, Congress had to pay in certificates rather than gold or silver, it quickly depleted in value. Another result of the lack of power in Congress was states discriminated against out-of-state traders which caused tariffs on their neighboring colonies. Since Congress was powerless, the British Government refused negotiations with Congress. As a result British goods came into the colonies while there were considerably low American exports to Britain. In the 1780's, there was an economic downtown and many debtors had a hard time paying their creditors. The federal and state governments weren't able to solve their own debt and soldiers who accepted the government certificates were almost cheated because their certificates were basically worthless. State

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