The Articles of Confederation

For this week's blog, I decided to write about what I'm learning about in APUSH. Here you go.

As the Revolutionary war ended, many problems faced the new nation. Some of the biggest problems were economic struggles, uniting the thirteen separate, and what to do with all the land now available. The Articles of Confederation were not successful in dealing with most of the pressing issues.

After the war, a major inflation took place. States printed their own money without gold to back it up. There was a shortage of supplies that caused prices to rise. The combination of the two had a devastating impact on citizens. Instead of helping the economy, the Articles of Confederation hurt it. Congress might have been able to help if the Articles of Confederation had granted it the right to regulate trade. Regulating the trade would have slowed inflation and made it easier to have trade be fair throughout the states. Congress could have helped more if they had the power to tax as well. The Articles, instead of creating harmony, created divisions among the states.

Unity is another thing the Articles botched. During the war, the separate states had a reason to work together. After the war ended though, most unity was lost. States no longer felt obligated to follow a central government. The Articles of Confederation did nothing to prevent this. In fact, the Articles set the new nation up as many separate nations. They did not unite the states under a strong government. Loyalty to the country, which during the war had been a duty, was now a choice.

The Articles of Confederation were not all bad though. They had their strengths. The biggest accomplishments of the Articles were the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. The Land Ordinance was the plan to divide new territory. It worked so well that it became the standard through out the settling of America. The Northwest Ordinance provided the keys to statehood. The guidelines stated in it were fair and this ordinance worked well also and was used many years following. The Articles of Confederation also pulled the nation through its critical period, a time when most new countries break apart.

Though the Articles of Confederation did have some high points, they mostly did not live up the standards it needed to. They did not provide a strong enough central government to unite the nation, or to be effective in dealing with the issues at hand. That is why in the end a new system was developed.