Transcript The National Government consisted of

Review the Articles of
Confederation
• Page 132 in your text book
• Compare yours to the real thing?
• What are the weaknesses and are you
surprised?
We are fighting a war and we need
a government.
• Question: What kind of government do you
think the Founders wanted to create?
Why? (write down)
The Articles of Confederation
What were the Articles of Confederation?
The Articles of Confederation were
documents outlining the government of the
United States from 1781-1789.
Under the Articles of Confederation, the
United states was a confederation.
The Articles of Confederation
• Where should the power reside (who
should have more?)
– With the State governments?
– With the new National government?
– What would you guess they decided?
– Why?
The Articles Created a Republic
What’s a Republic?
A system of government where the people are
represented by elected officials
How strong or weak of a
national government would the
colonists want?
Consider, they were fighting a war against a
powerful nation that was trying to control
them.
Where the states more alike,
or more different from each
other?
Remember the differences we
learned in the last two units!
Would that affect the kind of
government they choose to
create?
Weaknesses in the Articles of
Confederation
The National Government consisted of
A Congress
No Executive Branch to enforce laws
No Judicial Branch to resolve conflicts or
interpret the laws
• The National Government could NOT
–
–
–
–
Print money
Collect taxes
Regulate trade
Keep an army
The Articles in Practice
• The weaknesses prevented the new
government from doing much, but some
things did happen.
– Post Office- Ben Franklin was the 1st
Postmaster General
– Settled land disputes
Treaty of Paris 1783
• Officially ended the Revolutionary War
• Established the new boundaries of the
United States of America
• The newly independent states, and the
new national government had monumental
tasks to deal with
– War debt was huge
– How to pay, who should pay?
– What to do with the western lands claimed by
multiple states?
Land Ordinance of 1785
• States agreed to give up individual claims
to western lands. (see map)
• Lands in these new “Territories” were to
be divided.
– How would you divide the lands?
– What would you consider?
– They called them “Townships”
• Land Ordinance of 1785 continued
– Western holdings should be sold to help
pay national debt
– Land neatly organized and surveyed
– Divided into townships (36 square miles)
– Established school in each township
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
• Northwest Ordinance
– Outlined the guidelines for admitting new
states to the union
– New townships become territories
– Could apply for statehood when it has 60,000
inhabitants
– Steps
60,000 people
Write a constitution
Ask Congress to admit the new state
Weaknesses of the Articles of
Confederation
• Question: The Articles of Confederation
provided for an extremely weak central
(national) government. How could this be
problematic for the young United States?
A powerless government?
• Get your
textbooks out
and read page
140