At the end of the American Revolution the Articles of Confederation established an Anti-Federalist paradise in the United States. A weak league of friendship was formed between each state, angering Federalists who sought a stronger central government and causing political, economic and social problems. Shay’s Rebellion, inability to collect taxes and the worthless state currency were all problems that lead to the formation of a new constitution. After becoming free from the tyrannical rule of the British crown the Anti-Federalists were hesitant to establish a strong central government. This set into motion the forming of the Articles of Confederation which created a weak bond between states and a congress with essentially no power to put any law into motion.
This weak government had little legitimate authority and state sovereignty heavily outweighed the decisions made by the confederation. It was this state sovereignty that also greatly hampered the US economy as the states all had differing interests and hence the economy didn’t work well as there was no one government controlling it. There was therefore a great threat that the confederation would break up because of all the problems faced by the powerless confederation. The constitution therefore was the Americans’ way of dealing with these problems. Thanks to the constitution’s amendable nature it has lasted the past 200 years and is still the backbone of the American nation.
Federalists, supporters of the Constitution, believed that a strong national government was the key to the survival of the colonies, while the Antifederalists, those who opposed the Constitution, thought that a powerful national government could become a tyrant and overshadow state rights, and individual liberties. In an attempt to keep the Constitution, and appease the Antifederalists the Bill of Rights was written. This Bill addressed the fears of the Antifederalists and assured certain rights to the people that could not be impinged upon. This addition gained more support with the Antifederalists. With this new Constitution and the Bill of Rights Federalists and Antifederalists came to an agreement on how to
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.
The largest problem with currency was that each state printed there own money. Different merchants from each state couldn’t trade with each other, for the money they would be trading would mean nothing in their home state. This also made the national currency almost worthless. The government also had money problems as they were not allowed to tax the people. This brought great debt on the nation’s government.
The paper describes the events of the American Revolution that support the statement that the revolution was inevitable. The efforts of the British government to create a true empire in United States never worked well with Americans as they were unwilling to accept colonization. They started fighting for their autonomy. By the mid-19th century, the North America would have gained independence in the same way as the Jamaicans, Australia, and Canada, who were under the British colony. However, the nature of the American Revolution was inevitable (Kennedy and Bailey 213).
During this phase, the colonies began developing their own government. Self-government was the main aspect that caused America to separate itself from Britain. At the time they had more control over their own laws and policies and Britain had less. People felt less as British subjects and feelings of proprietorship kicked in. America was able to create its own governmental structure, and progress towards democracy was made.
However, was this new constitution bound to fail as it had been born from the humiliating defeat of the war? Previously Germany had been extremely authoritarian dominated and were therefore not suited to this to the new democratic constitution which was another aspect to its weakened prospects. The new constitution itself posed certain problems such as continued political uncertainty and instability. Moreover, did the limited nature of the German revolution cause political problems for the government and damage the new democracy. The first key issue I would like to discuss is the limited nature of the German revolution and how this damaged the prospects of German democracy.
Later, using the American Constitution as a framework, Nicaragua chose a difficult form of independent government (Langley, 55). Henry Stimson states that, The oppression and violence which characterized the communities of the isthmus during their early history long prevented their social life from acquiring stability and made brute force rather than conscience and public opinion the ruling principle in private as well as public affairs (p. 5). The main cause of the breakdown of popular government in Nicaragua lay in the failure of the system of popular election. Due to the percentage of illiteracy among the voters was overwhelming, which made the Nicaraguan government and its people vulnerable to submission under other government. This condition established an easy access for the development.
Reconstruction Essay Reconstruction in the Post Civil War Era was a failure due to political, social and economic aspects. Politically, the United States failed to unify and build trust. Socially, freedmen were not integrated into society and North-South relations were not rebuilt. Economically, the South’s economy failed to modernize and equalize with the North. As a result of these political, social and economic failures, the Post Civil War reconstruction was a failure.