Transcript File - LCS Middle School History

CHALLENGES of POSTWAR AMERICA
AMERICAN REVOLUTION
• Declared Victory
• War ended in 1783
• Period of Prosperity
• However, proved
difficult to get the
States to work
together.
• Many people feared
a Strong, Central
Government
Prosperity: State of flourishing, thriving, good
fortune, and/or successful social status
2
Post-War America
PROBLEMS:
SOLUTIONS:
• Massive War Debt of • Impose Taxes?
$55 Million 
• Poor Relations with
Foreign Countries
send US into deep
uncertainty. 
• Inter-State
cooperation?
SO…WHAT TO DO?
3
The Articles of Confederation
• During the Revolution, the
new United States needed a
functioning government
• Modeled after colonial
governments
• States would retain
sovereignty
• Founders were fearful of
concentrated power due to
past experience with the
British
Sovereignty: having supreme,
independent authority over a
geographic area, such as a
territory
4
Articles of Confederation = A Limited Government
• Articles established a “firm
league of friendship” among
the states
• Bills were passed on nine of
thirteen votes
• Amending the Articles took
unanimous consent of the
states
AMEND: to change or modify
for the better
5
Accomplishments of the Articles
of Confederation
• Administered the seven-year
war effort
• Negotiated the Treaty of
Paris with Britain in 1783
• Established the Northwest
Ordinance of 1787
Map of the land settled in the
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
6
Early Challenges of the New
Government
Problems with the states
• Congress had very little
power over the individual
states.
• It could not settle disputes
between states because
there was no national court
system.
Problems with foreign nations
• Because it was so weak,
Congress had trouble taking
advantage of the territory that
the United States had won in
the Treaty of Paris.
• The British did not leave their
forts in the Great Lakes region.
• The British and their Native
American allies kept American
settlers out of the Northwest
Territory.
• Negotiating with Spain about
uses of the Mississippi and port
of New Orleans was difficult.
Articles of Confederation leave Congress Unable to TAX, Raise an
Army, Settle State Debt, and Conduct Basic Business
Mo’ Land, Mo’ Problems
The Northwest Territory
• Was a need to organize the settlement of the vast
Northwest Territory—present-day Wisconsin, Illinois,
Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan
Western land claims
• Articles of Confederation did not address the question
of new states.
• States had to give up their western land claims to the
central government.
• Most states gave up their lands by the early 1790s.
• 8 Colonies attempt land grab of territories won as a
result of the TREATY OF PARIS – All claims later
dropped
Mo’ Land, Mo’ Problems
Mo’ Freedom, Mo’ Problems
• Nation Divided over
Internal Rebellions
• EX: Shay’s Rebellion
– Money shortage was hard on
farmers
– Massachusettes
– Judges ordered Farmers to sell
land and livestock to pay
debts  caused REBELLION
– Shay’s Rebellion SHOCKED
the country and FORCED
Congress to act (“now, we
need a stronger central
government”)
Daniel Shays and Job Shattuck, two
of the main protest leaders
10
Solutions!
• Constitutional Convention called to FIX ARTICLES OF
CONFEDERATION
• First Proposed by James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, and
Alexander Hamilton (among others)
• George Washington convinced into leading convention as
First President (War Hero!)
• John Hancock and Patrick Henry, among others, did not
show because they FEARED the Convention was a move
away from State’s Rights
11