Download Articles of Confederation PPT

What do you think?
1.
2.
In your opinion do you think the colonists would have
wanted another king after they won the American
Revolution?
Which government has more power today, the
government of a state like North Carolina, or the national
government in Washington, DC?
Symbolism of the Rattlesnake
 First political cartoon by
Benjamin Franklin
 13 colonies need to join
together to fight and break
away from British rule
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 The first flag ever carried into
battle by the United States
Marine Corps during the
American Revolution.
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The timber rattlesnake and eastern diamondback rattlesnake both populate
the geographical areas of the original thirteen colonies.
What is this political cartoon of 1754
trying to say? What influential
document does it go along with?
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American Revolution
 Starts in 1775 with the Battles at Lexington and Concord
 “The shot heard round the world”
 The war ended with an American victory in October
1781.
 With the Treaty of Paris in 1783 the United States
officially wins independence!
 25,000 American soldiers killed
 Contribution of African
 Contribution of
Americans:
Women:
 Free blacks in the North and South
 Women boycotted British
goods, spied on the
British, followed armies
as they marched,
 Did the washing, cooking,
and tending for soldiers,
delivering secret
messages,
 In a few cases like
Deborah Samson, fought
disguised as men.
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fought on both sides of the
Revolution, but most fought for the
colonial rebels.
 Crispus Attucks, who died in a
conflict in Boston in 1770, is
considered the first martyr of the
American Revolution.
 Both sides offered freedom and resettlement to slaves who were
willing to fight for them, especially
targeting slaves whose owners
supported the opposing cause.
Independence and Confederation
 On June 7, 1776 during the Second Continental Congress the
delegates from 9 colonies decided to write a document that would
bind the states together.
 On Nov. 15, 1777 the Second Continental Congress signed the
document called The Articles of Confederation
 The Articles created a “perpetual union,” naming it the “United
States of America.”
 The Articles created a national government with only ONE branch,
not like the 3 branches we have today. The branch was called the
legislative branch or the Confederation Congress.
 Under the Articles the Confederation Congress had the
following powers:
1. Wage war
2. Negotiate treaties
3. Manage American Indian affairs
4. Coin money
Strengths of the Articles of Confederation
1. The national government under the Articles
(Confederation Congress) successfully negotiated the
Treaty of Paris to end the Revolutionary war and
recognized the Mississippi River as America’s western
border.
Strengths of the Articles
The Confederation Congress also solved the problem
of how to divide up the land in the Northwest
Territory and admit new states
2.

They did this using the:



Northwest Land Ordinance of 1787
The Northwest Land Ordinance decided that land in the
Northwest Territory would be divided into 10 new states.
The national government would sell the land to raise money
to pay for the Revolutionary War.
This set a precedent for how USA would expand westward.
Northwest Territory:
How should we split up our land?
Weaknesses of the Articles of
Confederation
• Strangely we mostly remember the
Articles of Confederation because it did a
bad job running the United States. The
Articles did not give the national
government enough power because the
colonists were scared the government
would end up like the British King.
Weaknesses of the Articles

The following are all the powers the Articles DID NOT
give the national government:
1.
2.
3.
Regulate commerce (business) between states and with other
countries.
Collect taxes
Raise an army
Weaknesses of the Articles
 The Articles gave independent states more power than the national
government.
 The Articles made it so 9 states had to agree to any act of the
Congress, which was the national government.
 The Articles gave all the power to ONE branch, the Legislative
branch. This branch only had the power to make the laws.
 There was NO court system or judicial branch to interpret the laws.
 There was NO president or executive branch to enforce the laws
Check your understanding
 ANSWER: Which was stronger under the Articles of
Confederation: the state governments or the national
government?______________________
 ANSWER: Why is only having one branch of
government a problem?
The Final Word on the Articles:
 The Articles DID NOT give the national government enough power to
successfully run the country. This meant the states needed a stronger
national government with the ability to unify the country.
 The failure of the Articles directly caused the creation of the new,
stronger government under the US Constitution.
The Articles of Confederation
Strengths
Weaknesses
The Articles of Confederation
Strengths
Powers: coin $, wage war,
negotiate treaties, native
Americans
-Treaty of Paris
--Northwest Land
Ordinance=10 new states,
divides up land
Weaknesses
-COULD NOT: reg.
commerce, collect taxes,
raise an army
-States had too much
power
-Nat’l gov’t too weak
-9 of 13 states had to
agree to pass laws
-One branch of gov’t
(legislative)
Fill in the missing Document:
Declaration of Independence
US Constitution
Index card 1
1.
Which of the following was a problem under the Articles
of Confederation?
a.
b.
c.
d.
Each state had one vote in the legislature
A President carried out the nation’s laws
A national court system interpreted the nation’s laws
The nation had a strong central government
Index card 2
1.
What is the most likely reason it was difficult to pass laws
under the Articles of Confederation?
a.
b.
c.
d.
Passage required a unanimous vote of the 13 states
Passage required 9 of the 13 states
The government did not have a legislature
Americans were content to follow the British
Index card 3
1.
Which of the following led to conflicts between the states
under the Articles?
a.
b.
c.
d.
The powers of the new federal government
The states’ diplomatic alliance with King George III
The states’ control over the national court system
The states’ own individual powers within the new
government