Effects Of The Articles Of Confederation

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Post revolution America, was a time of turmoil despite America’s victory. The colonists, now free from Britain’s rule had a great deal of work ahead of them, making decisions on how exactly the country should be run with their newfound independence. The founding fathers faced this adversity with the creation of the Articles of Confederation, and in it was everything the states ever wanted with the states retaining a considerable amount of power. Nevertheless, although the Articles of Confederation appeased the states’ wishes, economic deficiency , foreign disputes, and interstate disunity demonstrated America’s inability to improve itself, deeming its loose government as ineffective.
America’s economic deficiency portrayed a struggling America
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The Treaty of Paris secured favorable consequences for America, but the terms of this treaty were not always respected because America was not. Great Britain, bitter after losing the Revolutionary War, was one country in particular that gave America great difficulty. In John Jay 's instructions to the United States minister to Great Britain, he clearly states that Britain has been interfering with America by imposing themselves on American territory and incapacitating American merchants. The British imposing themselves on American soil not only halted the expansion of americans on their own land, but it also made life harder for those on the frontier because the British would side with the indians and cause quarrels between the indians and colonists.The British capturing American merchants deterred many from foreign trade, causing them to rely on the unsuccessful domestic market. In turn, the economy suffered greatly, and America’s foreign relationship with Britain was only hurt even more after the American Revolution. (Doc 3) The Spanish were also unwilling to work with the Americans, causing problems on and within the American border.Although John Jay tries to convince the Spanish to allow Americans to use the Mississippi River to bolster trade and economic growth, the Spanish refuse anyway. The Mississippi river was a key landmark in …show more content…
America could not grow as a country as seen through its economy and foreign affairs, but it really was impossible to get anything done within the Articles due to its restrictions because disunity would never allow for decisions to be made. For example, In the letter from Rhode Island Assembly to Congress, national taxes are being argued against because it would be wrong to impose power on all of the states, but they say that the tax would be unequal in being much harder on the more commercial states. All of the states had their own interests, and this made passing any national laws relatively impossible due to the unanimous vote that it would have taken to change anything worthwhile. The tariffs might have been workable within less commercial states and they might have allowed or supported it, but because the commercial states did not agree with it, it was never passed. This reigned true for all interstate matters. Some states always wanted what other states did not want. The failure to accommodate this within the Articles of Confederation allows for no improvement within American life, and as a result, the people were generally dissatisfied. (Doc 1) Similarly, in addition to multiple worthless currencies based on state severely crippling the economy,

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