Articles Of Confederation

Articles of Confederation served as the first constitution of the United States. This document officially established the government of the union of the thirteen states.

The colonies knew they needed some form of official government that united the thirteen colonies. They wanted to have written down rules that all the states agreed to. The Articles allowed the Congress to do things like raise an army, be able to create laws, and print money

Article 2: The state governments still had their own powers that were not listed in the Articles. Article 3: Refers to the union as a "league of friendship" where the states will help to protect each other from attacks.

No power to raise money through taxes (federal/national government was too weak)

No way to enforce the laws passed by Congress (federal/national government was too weak)

the federal (national) government was too weak; the state governments had more power

Each state only had one vote in Congress despite the size of the state

replaced with the current United States Constitution

Did not want to be like Britain; wanted to try something different, giving more power to individual states