AMSCO 3.7 The Articles of Confederation

Overview

AMSCO Topic 3.7, The Articles of Confederation, covers America's first national government and why it didn't last. After declaring independence, the 13 states wanted a central government too weak to become tyrannical, and that's exactly what they got. The chapter traces how new state constitutions and the Articles of Confederation organized power after the Revolution, what the Confederation Congress actually accomplished (independence, the Land Ordinance of 1785, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787), and how foreign policy failures, economic depression, interstate rivalry, and Shays's Rebellion convinced leaders the country needed something stronger. This is the setup for the Constitutional Convention in AMSCO 3.8, so know the weaknesses cold.

The chapter opens with Henry Knox's 1786 line to George Washington: "The source of the evil is the nature of the government." That's the whole argument in one sentence.

New State Governments

While the Revolutionary War was still being fought, the colonies rewrote themselves as independent states, each with its own written constitution. By 1777, ten of the former colonies had new constitutions. Most were written and adopted by state legislatures, but a few states (Maryland, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina) submitted their constitutions to a popular vote for ratification.

Each constitution sparked debate between conservatives, who stressed law and order, and liberals, who wanted to protect individual rights and prevent future tyranny. Despite differences, the constitutions shared four features:

• A list of rights. Each constitution opened with a "bill" or "declaration" of basic rights, commonly including jury trials and freedom of religion. State officials could not infringe on these rights.
• Separation of powers. With a few exceptions, power was split among an elected two-house legislature, an elected governor, and a court system. The goal was preventing tyranny, especially from a too-powerful executive. Most real power sat with the legislatures.
• Voting. All White males who owned some property could vote. The property requirement (usually a small amount of land or money) rested on the assumption that property owners had a bigger stake in government than the poor.
• Office-holding. Candidates for office usually had to meet an even higher property qualification than voters.

The pattern to remember: power flowed to legislatures, and property qualifications limited who participated. That builds directly on the revolutionary ideals covered in AMSCO 3.6.

The Articles of Confederation: Structure and Powers

The Articles of Confederation created a central government with one body, a unicameral Congress, and deliberately limited power. John Dickinson drafted the original plan in Philadelphia in 1776 (while Jefferson was writing the Declaration of Independence), and Congress modified it to protect state power even further. Congress adopted the Articles in 1777 and sent them to the states.

Ratification Was Delayed Until 1781

Western land claims held everything up. States like Rhode Island and Maryland insisted that states with claims to American Indian lands west of the Alleghenies give them up so the new central government could control them. When Virginia and New York finally agreed to cede their western claims, the Articles were ratified in March 1781.

How the Government Worked

• One-house (unicameral) Congress, each state gets one vote regardless of size
• 9 of 13 votes required to pass important laws
• Unanimous vote required to amend the Articles (this made fixing problems nearly impossible)
• No executive branch, no national judiciary
• A Committee of States (one representative per state) handled minor decisions when Congress wasn't in session

What Congress Could and Couldn't Do

Congress could: wage war, make treaties, send diplomats, and borrow money.

Congress could not: regulate commerce, collect taxes, or enforce its own laws. To fund anything, Congress had to ask the states for money and hope they paid. Picture a government that can run up a tab but can't make anyone pay it. That's the Confederation.

Accomplishments Under the Articles, 1781-1789

Image source: Made by User:Golbez. / CC BY 2.5

The Confederation government was weak by design, but it scored three real wins. APUSH loves asking about these because students assume "weak government = nothing happened."

• Independence. The government could claim credit for Washington's ultimate victory and for negotiating favorable terms in the Treaty of Paris (1783) ending the war with Britain.
• Land Ordinance of 1785. Congress set a policy for surveying and selling western lands, dividing them into 36 square-mile townships and reserving one square-mile section per township for public education.
• Northwest Ordinance of 1787. For the territory between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River, Congress set the rules for creating new states, granted limited self-government to the territory, and prohibited slavery in the region.

Reserving land for schools and banning slavery made the Northwest Territory attractive to both White and free Black settlers. But there was a catch in the land system: the government auctioned land by the square mile (640 acres) at $1 per acre, so the first buyers had to have at least $640 in cash. Wealthy purchasers bought big, then resold smaller parcels to less wealthy Americans.

The Northwest Ordinance is the one historians call the Confederation's greatest achievement. It promoted public education, protected private property, and kept slavery out of the territory, and its process for admitting new states outlived the Articles themselves.

Weaknesses of the Articles

The accomplishments were overshadowed by problems the government simply couldn't solve. These weaknesses are the direct cause of the Constitutional Convention, so this is the most exam-relevant part of the chapter.

Foreign Affairs

European powers had little respect for a nation that couldn't pay its debts or act in a crisis. The government couldn't enforce the Treaty of Paris: it was too weak to stop Britain from keeping military outposts on the western frontier and restricting trade, and too weak to force states to restore Loyalist property or repay debts to foreigners as the treaty required. Britain and Spain eyed the western lands, ready to take advantage of American weakness.

Economic Problems

The root problem was that Congress had no taxing power. It could only request donations from the states, so it had no dependable revenue to repay its war loans. States carried large unpaid debts too. Unpaid debts limited credit and reduced foreign trade, and many states made things worse by printing worthless paper money. The combined result was an economic depression.

Internal Conflicts

The 13 states acted like rivals, not partners. They slapped tariffs and restrictions on goods crossing state lines and fought boundary disputes with neighbors. The national government had no power to settle any of it.

Shays's Rebellion

In the summer of 1786, Captain Daniel Shays, a Massachusetts farmer and Revolutionary War veteran, led farmers in an uprising against high state taxes, imprisonment for debt, and the lack of paper money. The rebels stopped tax collection and forced debtors' courts to close. In January 1787, when Shays and his followers tried to seize weapons from the Springfield armory, the Massachusetts state militia broke the rebellion.

Notice who put it down: the state militia, not the national government, because there was no national force to send. For elites like Washington and Knox, Shays's Rebellion was the alarm bell proving the Articles couldn't keep order. Within months, delegates were meeting in Philadelphia to replace them.

Key Terms to Know

Practice and Next Steps

Test how well the Articles material stuck with the Topic 3.7 course study guide, which frames this content the way the AP exam does. Then keep moving through the full set of AMSCO notes, starting with AMSCO 3.8 on the Constitutional Convention, where the weaknesses you just reviewed get fixed (and fought over).

For practice, run a few APUSH multiple-choice questions on Period 3, or try writing about the Articles' strengths and weaknesses with FRQ practice and instant scoring. A classic prompt asks you to evaluate the extent to which the Articles provided an effective government, and now you have evidence for both sides. The APUSH key terms glossary is there when a term needs a quick refresher.