Examine the problems confronting the first government of the United States under the Articles of Confederation that led to the Constitutional Convention.
I have to write a thesis statement and outline on the above command. I'll have to write a five paragraph essay out of it, but so far I'm coming up one short. I can't find enough information for another paragraph. I have:
The Articles were a "firm league of friendship" with facts, and that the Articles were't able to enforce laws, tax, or regulate commerce (with facts).
I'm still looking, but if anyone could throw me a bone with a couple (or one) more fact(s) about the problems of the Articles... I'd totally appreciate it.
You could talk about how congress could not raise an army, they could only request it from the states. The American Pageant book [Kennedy, E. 13] talks about it on page 173. If you have an older edition of it, it's chapter 19 section "The Articles of the Confederation: America's First Constitution"
It talks about how a group of mutinous Pennsylvanian soldiers made a demonstration in front of Independence Hall... And congress had to flee to Princeton College for safety.
Also under the Articles, the government was a kind of laughable subject in the courts of Europe.. Pride is always important
With Taxes don't forget to emphasize the growing debt because the government had to borrow all it's money [also important with the above mentioned pride thing.. Under the articles, we were like.. an unemployed twenty year old living off our friends, with credit card debt through the roof.. is anyone going to give us a loan? Yea. Not one with anywhere near decent interest rates..(haha. real-life-example)]
And don't forget major focus on the extremely weak central government [since that's why everything else goes wrong with the Articles]
hope it helps
Thank you, Kavioh. :) I must have skipped right over that in my worries to find it. :cool: