The American Constitution After the signing of The Declaration of Independence in 1776, the thirteen colonies had a major issue which needed a solution—they needed a government. Formerly known as colonies, the newfound states wanted structure but not too much structure, they needed just enough to keep things in order. In 1777, the Congress figured the first steps would be to create the Articles of Confederation, The United States first written constitution. The Articles of Confederation established the government of the thirteen states. Under the Articles of Confederation, there was a weak central government, which then gave most of the power to the state governments. The Articles of Confederation, however, ended in 1787 because they refused
