Articles of Confederation

A detailed Summary of Articles of Confederation


The Articles of Confederation adopted in 1777 were designed to provide an effective form of government, but did nothing of the sort. Although the Confederation attempted to strengthen foreign relations by maintaining peace with Great Britain and Spain, it failed. It also tried to better the nation's economic conditions through means of taxation and an increase in the national government's power, neither of which worked. Ultimately, the Articles of Confederation were unsuccessful and only added to the stack of problems the nation had to fix.

The rest of the world did not think highly of the Confederation, making it challenging for it to convince Great Britain and Spain to honor their part of the peace treaty of 1783. The British had agreed to repay all slaveowners whose slaves had been seized by the British army, as well as promise to leave the United States. The British did not follow through with either of these agreements. John Adams was sent to London as a minister to res


olve such issues, but returned with no such achievement. Great Britain declined to even send a minister to the American capital. The debility of the Confederation was obvious throughout this all, as it was in its troubles with Spain as well.

The Articles of Confederation were unable to mend all the United States' economic dilemmas, though it tried to by taxing people and trying to increase the control the national government had. American ports were filled with foreign ships overflowing with goods, enticing the American people to buy extravagantly. A serious problem of debts arose, adding to a brutal depression that had already begun. The Confederation had to deal with the people of the nation's debt, as well as their own outstanding debt. On top of these two issues, the Confederation had no way to pay off what the owed, and they had limited powers to tax. There was also no currency or exchange rate to help lessen the problems. Nationalists searched for ways to increase the

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Approximate Word count = 665
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History

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