0. 3/11
Goal: Assess the effectiveness of the new state and national governments attempts to respond to economic challenges foreign and domestic
QOD: What would happen to a basketball team if every player concentrated on setting individual records rather than working as a team to win games?
Agenda: The New Government: AOC reading, PPT

1. Foundations of Government U.S. History & The Constitution

2. Experimenting with Confederation
- Americans created a government under the
Articles of Confederation (AOC).
- Protected hard fought rights.
- AOC’s downfall = weak central government to
meet the nation’s needs.
- Weak government = result of experiences
that led to the Am. Revolution.

3. Experimenting with Confederation
- Americans fought to maintain colonial assemblies’ rights.
- Believed sovereignty rested in state governments.
- Continental Congress = model for the AOC government (Confederation government).
- Authority rested in states, not central, governments.

4. https://www.youtube.com/w atch?v=XbRkyG13jZ0
Do we have problems today because States have certain laws that are different from the laws of the Federal Government?
Examples?
atch?v=XbRkyG13jZ0

5. Experimenting with Confederation
Successes of the Confederation Government  
- Large & small states conflicted over western land claims.
- Resolved = states gave up land claims to the Confederation
government = created national domain.
- Government established land distribution method = Land Ordinances.
- Set precedent for the creation
of new states (Northwest Ordinance).

7. Experimenting with Confederation
 Successes Cont.
- Northwest Ordinances = slavery illegal in the
old Northwest Territory. (nation’s 1st effort).
- Land Ordinance & Northwest Ordinance were
the first acts of the 1st Congress under the new
1787 Constitution.
- System for equal state creation = achievement
of the Confederation government.

8. Experimenting with Confederation
Successes Cont.
- Confederation government = effective during Revolution when states had a common cause.
- Allowed states to write constitutions & passed laws that met their needs.

9. Experimenting with Confederation
Weaknesses of the Confederation Government:
- AOC government negotiated the Treaty of Paris.
- Problems between states rose soon after the war’s end in 1781.
- Americans found AOC government too weak for the new nation.

10. Experimenting with Confederation
Weaknesses of the Confederation Government Cont.:
1.) Economic Problems: Interruption of trade with Britain (primary trade
partner) = economic depression & challenges to the AOC gov’t.
2.) Government didn’t have the ability to pay an army; elite feared it might
not be able to respond to crisis.
3.) Government could not solve conflicts
between states over interstate trade,
currency, or boundaries.
- Power to do so was not recognized by
the states
- No national judicial branch to resolve
conflicts.

11. Experimenting with Confederation
Problems Cont.
4.) Diplomatic Problems: gov’t couldn’t force the British to follow the
Treaty of Paris = remove British from U.S. land.
5.) Couldn’t persuade British gov’t to allow the continuation of trade.
6.) Couldn’t get U.S. access to the sea through Spanish New Orleans.
States attempted to negotiate with foreign powers separately.
7.) Couldn’t levy taxes (only request
funds from the states.
- Many states refused to support the
national gov’t with funds = gov’t
couldn’t raise an army that would
give the government diplomatic
clout.

12. Experimenting with Confederation
Problems Cont.
8.) Lack of power to solve national problems = states refused to acknowledge
central government’s authority.
- 2/3 majority needed by states to pass legislation.
9.) No executive branch to carry out the will of the national congress or a
judiciary to resolve disputes.
10.) Authority of the government derived from the states = Confederation
Congress delegates were selected by state legislatures.

13. Foundations of Government
The Articles of Confederation