![]() ![]() To transform themselves from outlaws into a legitimate nation, the colonists needed international recognition for their cause and foreign allies to support it. It adopted trade restrictions, established and maintained an army, issued fiat money, created a military code and negotiated with foreign governments. During the war, Congress exercised an unprecedented level of political, diplomatic, military and economic authority. It was an era of constitution writing-most states were busy at the task-and leaders felt the new nation must have a written constitution a "rulebook" for how the new nation should function. ![]() In 1775, with events outpacing communications, the Second Continental Congress began acting as the provisional government for the United Colonies. These actions eroded the number of Crown Loyalists ( Tories) among the colonials and, together with the highly effective propaganda campaign of the Patriot leaders, caused an increasing number of colonists to begin agitating for independence from the mother country. Civil disobedience resulted in coercive and quelling measures, such as the passage of what the colonials referred to as the Intolerable Acts in the British Parliament, and armed skirmishes which resulted in dissidents being proclaimed rebels. Over the next two decades, some of the basic concepts it addressed would strengthen others would weaken, especially in the degree of loyalty (or lack thereof) owed the Crown. The political push to increase cooperation among the then-loyal colonies began with the Albany Congress in 1754 and Benjamin Franklin's proposed Albany Plan, an inter-colonial collaboration to help solve mutual local problems. The new Constitution provided for a much stronger federal government by establishing a chief executive (the president), courts, and taxing powers. On March 4, 1789, the government under the Articles was replaced with the federal government under the Constitution. ![]() Delegates quickly agreed that the defects of the frame of government could not be remedied by altering the Articles, and so went beyond their mandate by replacing it with a new constitution. This became the Constitutional Convention. Shortly thereafter, as more states became interested in meeting to revise the Articles, a meeting was set in Philadelphia on May 25, 1787. Initially, in September 1786, some states met to address interstate protectionist trade barriers between them. ![]() Their hope was to create a stronger government. As the government's weaknesses became apparent, especially after Shays' Rebellion, some prominent political thinkers in the fledgling union began asking for changes to the Articles. states, its delegates discovered that the limitations placed upon the central government (such as in assembling delegates, raising funds, and regulating commerce) rendered it ineffective at doing so. That body was renamed the Congress of the Confederation but most Americans continued to call it the Continental Congress, since its organization remained the same.Īs the Confederation Congress attempted to govern the continually growing U.S. Little changed procedurally once the Articles of Confederation went into effect, as ratification did little more than constitutionalize what the Continental Congress had been doing. The document provided clearly written rules for how the states' league of friendship, known as the Perpetual Union, would be organized.ĭuring the ratification process, the Congress looked to the Articles for guidance as it conducted business, directing the war effort, conducting diplomacy with foreign states, addressing territorial issues and dealing with Native American relations. The Articles consciously established a weak central government, affording it only those powers the former colonies had recognized as belonging to king and parliament. A guiding principle of the Articles was the establishment and preservation of the independence and sovereignty of the states. It came into force on March 1, 1781, after being ratified by all 13 colonial states. It was debated by the Second Continental Congress at Independence Hall in Philadelphia between July 1776 and November 1777, and finalized by the Congress on November 15, 1777. The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was an agreement among the 13 states of the United States, formerly the Thirteen Colonies, that served as the nation's first frame of government. March 4, 1789, by the United States Constitution ![]()
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