The Constitution

Articles of Confederation

While Revolutionary War was going on Second Continental Congress acted as the government. They made laws, appointed officers in the army, and made loans. When the war was over the Congress made a plan for the new nation. This plan was called the Articles of Confederation.

The Articles of Confederation created rules for the states to work together instead of each ruling separately as they had before the war. A Congress was formed with each state having one vote. The colonists did not want the Congress to have many powers.

Congress was given the following powers:

could declare warmake treaties

print or borrow money

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The Congress did not have these rights:

could not raise an army or navy could not tax

could not control trade with other nations or between states

no national courts to enforce laws

The Articles of Confederation was approved in 1781. This Congress was so weak that its members did not attend the meetings. They hardly had enough members to vote on the Treaty of Paris to end the Revolutionary War. The government was so weak that other countries took advantage of Americans such as the Spanish stopped the American farmers and fur traders from working on the Mississippi River. Another major weakness was each state printed its own money, and people disagreed what each state's money was worth.

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