Failures Of The Articles Of The Confederation

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Why the Articles of the Confederation Failed: Although the newly formed thirteen states all had a strong state government, one of the many reasons the Articles of the Confederation failed was because of their weak national government. Each of the thirteen states all had state representation and officials, however the recently independent America was lacking a stable national government to keep their nation functioning as a whole. Another unavoidable reason that the Articles were unsuccessful was because of the thirteen different forms of currency that America had adopted. The states all printed their own, different, types of money, none of which were alike. This led to confusion relating to exchange rates and trade, the states all had difficulty trading or buying off each other because of their difference in pay. Some states accepted the money that other states had offered to them, while other states refused to honor bills issued by their neighboring states. The absence of a national government was strongly felt during situations of territory disputes. When life after war began to settle, Massachusetts, New York, and New Hampshire all fought over who had the right to claim the land of Vermont. No one was able to mediate this disagreement. The Articles failure became evident when congressmen were unable to provide funding for their state. After we had just fought a war on taxes, each individual state needed to find a way to receive support from their citizens. Even if congress instituted taxes, many citizens refused to pay any kind of money to the state government because there was no national government to enforce that they were required to. Congress could not forcibly push the need for money on their people, so the population of that state was able to withhold money and force the congress to follow their demands. Because there was hardly any money and a heavy
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