Rachel Kay How accurate is it to say Frederick William IV was responsible for the failure of the Frankfurt Parliament? The Frankfurt Parliament was established to create freedom of press, German citizenship for all, fair taxation, equality of political rights and to create a unified Germany. However, countries like Austria greatly opposed it. Frederick William IV could be seen as responsible for the failure of the Frankfurt Parliament because he refused to accept any form of leadership and made it clear he distrusted the ‘gentlemen of Frankfurt’. However, many other factors played a role in the demise of the Parliament such as the fact that they were ill-organised, the lack of popular support and their inability to enforce decisions.
From then on party leaders were erratic and kept changing, meaning there was little stability in the Conservative party, which made them vulnerable to attack. After Peel was beaten in the Corn Laws crisis, many strong leader figures left with him such as Gladstone. This meant the party was left with the back bench aristocracy who were not all that interested in the wellbeing of the party and let it deteriorate. This was not at all the only problem that the conservatives faced. The truth was that their policies simply did not appeal to the majority of the voting population any more.
“From 1781 to 1789 the Articles of Confederation provided the United States with an effective government” Using the documents and your knowledge of the period, evaluate this statement. From 1781 to 1789 the Articles of Confederation failed to provide the United States with an effective government. Proper governments should have the ability to have a certain amount of power over its people, under the Articles; the government could not regulate trade, tax or enforce most laws on its people. The states were given the task that the national government should have been given. Among its many weaknesses were the single branch of government, unicameral, and the inability of congress to tax or declare war.
The nation was quite poor from the Revolution and had loans from the French that it was unable to pay back. This was because the Confederation did not have the power to tax, the states were supposed to donate money to the government and as a result, when other states realized that some were not donating money, they refused to as well. Despite the lack of taxing for the nation, the states placed taxes on goods being traded in or through their territory from other states. However, trade was complicated by the fact that there was no national currency. A Virginia dollar could be worth more than a South Carolina dollar, or worth less than a New England gold coin.
This refusal to agree with each other and frequent 'slating' of the decisions was not the appropriate conditions for a democracy, as many people would be unhappy for a majority of proposed arrangements. It is argued that an autocracy worked better in this situation as one person was able to finalise decisions, avoiding unecessary conflicts in the Reichstag. Therefore, almost by default, Germany appeared to work as a democratic system. The year 1908 marked the event of The Hottentot Election. The Centre Party joined the SPD in voting down government plans for a railway that would ruin the lives of the colonists that had settled down in the way.
What were the major arguments that surfaced in opposition to the new Constitution proposed in 1787? How did supporters of the Constitution counter those arguments? Before the Constitution was proposed in 1787, under the Articles of Confederation, there was no control of the country; debt was piling up and there was no enforcement of taxes. Many arguments surfaced in opposition to the new Constitution, but the main concern had to do with the concept of a “president” where there was a single executive leader and centralized government, and that there was no bill of rights. Supporters of the constitution countered these arguments by adding some safeguards in some cases and also by thoroughly explaining the limited powers that the leader and government would have and the necessity for a strong central government.
Under the Articles of Confederation its powers included conducting foreign relations, settling disputes between states, controlling market values, regulating trade and so on. It purposely did not give the national government all the power in fear of tyranny like in Britain. Economically and Socially, although the United States desired an effective government, they comprised an ineffective government because there was no president, the U.S. wasn’t able to pass taxes and laws, it had no army to protest the nation, it had a weak government, and it had no courts to settle problems between states. So in the end, the Articles of Confederation proved to be both inadequate in economic conditions, foreign relations and other aspects. Thus, these political, economic and social factors all contributed to the reasons why the Articles of Confederation couldn’t provide an effective form of government.
Without an enforced base tax, there was no way for the fledgling country to pay off state and national debts from the war years, except for requesting money from the states which seldom came. The Articles of Confederation did give the federal government control over many things. Foreign relations lied solely with the central government, but the weakness of the Articles was frustrating in conducting foreign policy. In 1789, Thomas Jefferson, concerned over the failure to fund an American naval force to confront the Barbary Pirates, wrote to James Monroe, “It will be said there is no money in the treasury. There never will be money in the
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.
This they could not do because they were not allowed into any college, as another grievance states. Thus women were limited to certain jobs for only a fraction of the pay, as yet another grievance states. These three grievances combined bear a striking resemblance to a grievance in the independence document. The grievance argues that the king has made it difficult for the colonists to participate in government, calling together legislations at places “unusual, uncomfortable, and distant”. In both grievances, it is extremely difficult for the subject to help better themselves and