Effectiveness Of The Articles Of Confederation

The Articles of Confederation was the first official Constitution of the United States in the years after the revolution. Now although articles were weak in the sense that it was a joke of a government to other nations and they had no power over the colonies (because it was purposely made weak), there was some strong points that actually made it ineffective government especially when it came to foreign relations, economic condition, and Western lands.
There is one thing that made the article strong and that was the idea of unity among the colonies and other nations. The articles took away some of congress’ powers, but it also bestowed important ones to them like the power to create treaties and wage war. War was obviously something the U.S. …show more content…
The land hungry colonies rushed to try and claim a piece of the land, but there were higher matters to deal with like attempts to increase the country’s economy. Congress came up with the idea of selling the western lands to the colonies to try and pay off the war debts they had so they passed the Land Ordinance of 1785 which basically said that the new land would belong to the federal government and the land was up for purchase to whoever wanted it. It also laid out a blueprint of how each new state was to be set up and divided. Of course it took some time before all the states agreed to it, but it was a huge win on the government’s part because they were able to gain revenue to sustain the country. Now this, along with the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (Which was an act that laid out the rules on how a new piece of land can be admitted as a state) demonstrated the strengths of the articles of confederation in respect to the western lands because regardless of the power restraints placed on congress, they were still able to not only gain revenue, but they managed to create an effective blueprint of how the states should be set up which was probably the most effective thing the government was able to …show more content…
It managed to create treaties with other nations and keep the country out of foreign affairs, it managed to orderly and successfully sort out the new lands past the new land acquired, and it managed to gain revenue for the country (even though the economic condition was the weakest aspect of the articles). These accomplishments show, in some degree, that the articles were in fact an effective form of government. However, like many first drafts, you have to make revisions to them until you get to a much better outcome and as a result, ideas of a stronger government were raised to eventually form the American Constitution that still exists