Gates AP Government & Politics: The Articles of Confederation

Thursday, September 5, 2019

The Articles of Confederation

The Articles of Confederation

Learning Objective:

CON-1.B: Explain the relationship between key provisions of the Articles of Confederation and the debate over granting the federal government greater power formerly reserved to the states

Essential Knowledge:

CON-1.B.1: Specific incidents and legal challenges that highlighted key weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation are represented by the:

Lack of centralized military power to address Shays’ Rebellion
Lack of tax-law enforcement power

We've declared our independence and won the war against England. Now what? During the Revolutionary War, a new document was created designed to help organize the states and coordinate their efforts against England. This document, the Articles of Confederation, lasted less than a decade before being replaced by our current Constitution. Despite its failures, much can be learned from the Articles.

Key Questions:
1. What was the basic structure of government under the Articles of Confederation? What did the government look like?

2. What were the weaknesses under the Articles of Confederation?

3. How does Shays' Rebellion illustrate the problems under the Articles and lead to the Constitutional Convention?

After watching these videos, write down what the government structure looked like under the Articles of Confederation. You should have at least three key points about the government.

Next, go to this webpage and read about the failures under the Articles of Confederation.
Create a t-chart with the first column labeled Weaknesses under the Articles and the second column titled Constitutional Fixes.
Fill in the first column with the weaknesses described from the website. We'll fill in the other side later.