Name______________________________________ Date ...



Name_______________________________________ Date______________________ Period________

NOTES: The Articles of Confederation

KEY IDEA: ____________ fears had a big effect upon the design of the first government for our country, the Articles of Confederation.

PROBLEM #1: The FEAR of creating a strong national government.

A. A ___________________ government was needed to:

1. Control ________________ among the states

2. Control ________________ between ________________ and __________________________

3. Manage conflicts among states about such issues as ______________________.

B. Once war against Great Britain started, each state was like a _________________________________ with its own constitution and government.

1. The people were used to participating in their ______________ governments.

2. The people could elect members of their __________________________ to represent their interests in their state legislatures.

3. The people were worried about a central government that was too _______________________ as well as _______________________________________.

4. SO, the people believed that government is best when it is _________________ to the people. The people could then _____________________ it and make certain that it did not violate their rights.

5. Republican government can only succeed in small communities where people _____________ common _______________ and ________________________.

SOLUTION #1: Create a ____________ national government.

A. In the Articles of Confederation, there was ___________ a _________________________________.

1. There were no executive or judicial branches:

a. There was no _____________________________

b. There was no ______________________________________

B. Most of the power of government remained with the ______________________

C. The national government had ___________________ power over the states and their citizens.

D. Congress did _____________ have the power to ____________________________ from the states or from the people directly. It could only ____________________ money from the state governments, which were ___________________________ to raise the money from their citizens.

E. Congress did _____________ have the power to regulate (make rules about) __________________ among the various states.

PROBLEM #2: The FEAR that some states would dominate others in the national government.

A. Decisions in Congress would be made by ___________________ vote.

B. Would each state have ____________ vote, or would states with greater ________________________ or wealth be given more votes than others?

SOLUTION #2: Give each state ONE vote.

A. The Articles also provided that on important matters – for example, whether to declare war – nine states would have to agree. This way the seven smaller states could not outvote the six larger states.

Name________________________________________ Date________________________ Period_________

|WEAKNESSES in the Articles of Confederation |

|Notes to accompany the Play |

| |

|1. (Acts 1 & 2) ________________________________________________________________________ |

| |

|A. Congress had no power to collect taxes! All it could do was _______________ money from the |

|state governments. |

|B. Congress had borrowed a lot of money from Americans and foreigners to fight the Revolutionary |

|War. They had no way to pay it back. When Congress asked the states to give the national |

|government $10 million, the states only gave $1.5 million. |

| |

| |

|2. (Act 3) ____________________________________________________________________________ |

|__________________________________________________________________________________ |

| |

|A. If members of a state government or citizens within a state disobeyed a request made by the |

|national government, there was no way the national government could make them obey. |

|B. When the war was over, the national government signed a peace treaty with Great Britain called the Treaty of Paris. It was intended to protect the rights |

|of loyalists, people who were living in the United States but who were still loyal to Great Britain. The new national government could not uphold this treaty |

|because it could not force the states to give the loyalists back their property that had been confiscated during the war. It could also not force citizens to |

|pay back money that was owed to the loyalists. |

| |

| |

|3. (Act 4) ______________________________________________________________________ |

| |

|A. Although Congress had the power to make agreements with foreign nations, it did not have the power to make state governments live up to these agreements. |

|So some citizens imported goods from other nations and then refused to pay for them! Not surprisingly, people in foreign countries became reluctant to trade |

|with people in the United States. |

| |

| |

|4. (Act 5) ______________________________________________________________________ |

| |

|A. Congress had no power to make laws that regulated the trade between the states. So some states levied taxes on goods passing through them to other states. |

|For example, both New York and Pennsylvania taxed goods going to New Jersey! |

| |

| |

|5. _____________________________________________________________________________ |

|A. The state legislatures were becoming too corrupt. Representatives with common interests were joining together in factions. James Madison defined a faction|

|as a group of people that seeks to promote its own interests above the interests of other individuals or groups. They were making laws that benefited |

|themselves and not the common good. They cancelled debts and confiscated the property of loyalists. |

|Ironically, people began to argue that there was too much democracy in the state governments. They argued that majority rule, when the majority pursued its own|

|selfish interests at the expense of the rights of others, was every bit as dangerous as that of an uncontrolled king. This was almost like tyranny! |

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