Background
Also known as perpetual union, Articles of confederation involved uniting the 13 states in the United States of America who had become free from being ruled by the British. During this period, the Americans were scared of having a powerful central government. As a result, the articles were mainly meant to impede the establishment of a stronger central government. In these articles, the government had the freedom, sovereignty and independence but no power for enforcing the actions it carried out. It mainly involved agreements agreed upon by the thirteen sovereign states also, resulting into the first constitution they had. The first draft was made in the year 1776, while the final one as a result of ratification by the state came into existence in the year 1777 followed by the final ratification in the year 1781 (Dougherty 10).
Among the key issues in these articles were international and domestic legitimacy. This was directly linked to the revolution war in America, dealing with issues based on the India relations conducting of diplomacy under issues dealing with territories. This paper will give a background, discuss the problems experienced and how they were solved through the constitution, the powers given to the government and by the constitution to solve these problems and if they were successful or not (Dougherty 10).
After the war, the government was in a state of ending debts and even had no control of power over the taxes in the region, imposing of any tariffs taxes became a great problem to the US states and hence, they had no proper method of collecting any form of revenue. This was mainly as a result of the articles of confederation (Dougherty 10).
Problems experienced under the Articles of Confederation
The Albany congress based on inter-colonial collaboration and resolution of the local problems that were considered to be mutual amongst the participating states. During this period, the states involved felt it necessary to have a constitution that has been written down.
One of the problems experienced was tariff wars. This is because, the government under this articles was given minimal power with states given the power to act independently hence, they had the power to use this opportunity for self-interest with the neighboring states suffering. For example, New Jersey lying in between Philadelphia and the city of New York was imposed to heavy taxation from these two states. Therefore, other nations had the opportunity to impose heavy taxation on goods that came from the US while the US having very minimal power to complain over the heavy taxation imposed on their goods (Callahan 76).
Since the Americans now were a separate state from the British Empire, they had to have their own security system. This is due to the reason that, federal government could not give the Americans defense as well as security. It therefore, required that the American states involved in providing their own security which became another burden to this state as they had to recruit new members and pay them as well. It not only involved the money to be used for supporting the navy, but this in turn affected the US military force as they did not have the navy to aid in protecting goods from the sea pirates when on a mission to export. It became a recurring problem to export any good from the US, hence lowering the economy (Callahan 76).
Under the articles of confederation, it is also evident that the government of the US had been restricted to be in charge of any expenses and debts. Since the US was given assistance by the French during the period of war, they had to repay the French but they could not immediately, which led to having huge debts. They were even incapable to pay for the debts that they owed during the war. There was no proper means of raising revenue for the US during this period to repay for the debts (Callahan 76).
How the constitution solved these problems
Since the constitution main agenda was to give a solution to the problems that came out of the articles of confederation, it created an executive branch that its chief aim was the enforcement of federal laws. In the constitution, the government could now also impose taxes due to the power it had hence an improvement of their national currency. In the constitution, the government could now enforce laws as a result of the Whiskey rebellion that forced enabled the government to have a national court system of law (Callahan 81).
Yes, the powers that were given to the government worked. This is attributed to the fact that since they now had power and could impose taxes and tariffs at their own rates, they government was able to pay off the debts that had been incurred during the war. This can be evidenced by their ability to solve the problems they had incurred like the debts owed to the French and other nations that had supported them during the period of war. In addition, the US government was now able to provide their own security agency through recruiting new members for defense of the states in the US (Callahan 81).
Work cited
Dougherty, Keith L. Collective Action Under the Articles of Confederation. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2006. Print.
Callahan, Kerry P. The Articles of Confederation: A Primary Source Investigation into the
Document That Preceded the U.s. Constitution. New York, NY: Rosen Primary Source,
2003. Print.
