In five minutes
The Articles of Confederation were the first written constitution of the United States. Congress adopted them on 15 November 1777, in the middle of the Revolutionary War, and they took effect on 1 March 1781, when the last of the thirteen states approved them. They stayed in force until the government under the new Constitution began on 4 March 1789. In those years the country won independence and organised its western lands, but it struggled to pay its debts, defend its borders and keep the states working together.
The Articles described the union as "a firm league of friendship" among thirteen states. Each state kept its "sovereignty, freedom, and independence," so the central government was the servant of the states rather than a ruler over them. That was deliberate. The people who wrote the Articles had just rejected a distant, powerful government in London, and they did not want to build another one at home.
This article is part of the story of the American Revolution. Below you will find why the Articles were written, what they said, what they achieved, where they broke down and what replaced them.
Why the Articles were written
Before 1776 the thirteen colonies had no common government of their own. The Continental Congress, which first met in 1774, was an improvised body that organised the resistance and then the war. On 7 June 1776 Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed that Congress declare independence, seek foreign alliances and prepare a plan of confederation. Congress named a committee with one member from each colony to draft that plan, and John Dickinson of Pennsylvania wrote the first draft, which was presented in July 1776.
Debate was slow, and the war kept interrupting it. Three questions caused the most trouble. First, how should states vote? Small states wanted equal votes, while large states wanted votes in proportion to their size. Second, how should the costs of the war be shared? Third, who owned the huge western lands beyond the Appalachians, which several states claimed under their old colonial charters? Congress settled on one vote per state, and on sharing expenses according to the value of each state's land. The western lands stayed unresolved for years.
Congress finally approved the text on 15 November 1777 in York, Pennsylvania, where it had moved after British troops took Philadelphia in September. The document then went to the states, and all thirteen had to agree.
What the Articles said
The document has thirteen articles. The main points are these:
- Name and purpose. Article I names the union "The United States of America." The states joined for common defence, the security of their liberties and their mutual welfare.
- One chamber. Congress had a single house. Each state sent between two and seven delegates, but each state had only one vote.
- Hard to pass laws. Important decisions, such as declaring war, making treaties, coining money, borrowing money or raising an army, needed the votes of nine of the thirteen states.
- Almost impossible to amend. Changing the Articles required the approval of every state, so a single state could block a reform.
- No separate executive or national courts. There was no president. Congress ran things through committees and a few appointed officers, such as a superintendent of finance. There was no national court system for ordinary cases.
- No power to tax. Congress could ask the states for money, but it could not collect it. These requests were often ignored or only partly paid.
- No power over trade. Congress could not regulate commerce between states or with other countries. States set their own tariffs, and some printed their own paper money.
Congress could conduct foreign affairs, make war and peace, run the post office, manage relations with Native nations and settle some disputes between states. In practice, though, it could only carry out those powers if the states cooperated.
How long it took to take effect
Ratification dragged on for more than three years. Virginia was the first state to approve, in December 1777. The main obstacle was Maryland, which refused to sign until the states with large western claims, especially Virginia, agreed to hand their lands over to the national government. Virginia took steps to do so, Maryland's delegates signed in early 1781, and the Articles took effect on 1 March 1781. Seven months later, on 19 October 1781, the British army surrendered at Yorktown. The war was effectively over, and Congress had been working without a formal constitution for most of it.
What the Articles achieved
It is easy to say the Articles were a failure, but the record is mixed. Under them, the United States:
- kept an army and a navy in the field long enough to win the war, with help from France;
- negotiated the Treaty of Paris of 1783, in which Britain recognised American independence and gave up claims to a large territory east of the Mississippi River (see Treaty of Paris 1783);
- passed the Land Ordinance of 1785, which surveyed western land into square townships of 36 square-mile sections and set aside one section in each township to support public schools;
- passed the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which set out how the territory north of the Ohio River could become new states equal to the old ones, and banned slavery in that territory.
These two ordinances were among the most lasting laws of the period. They gave the country a method of growth that did not treat new settlers as colonial subjects.
Why the Articles broke down
The weaknesses became serious once the war ended and the pressure of a common enemy was gone.
Money. Congress owed money to foreign lenders, to American creditors and to the soldiers. It had no steady income. In 1781 it asked the states for permission to levy a 5 per cent import duty, but Rhode Island refused, and since every state had to agree, the plan died. A second attempt in 1783 also failed.
Trade and foreign policy. Britain kept troops in forts in the Northwest despite the peace treaty, and Spain restricted American use of the lower Mississippi River. Congress had too little power to force either to change. States also taxed one another's goods, and Congress could not make them stop.
Unrest. In 1786 and 1787, farmers in western Massachusetts, heavily in debt and facing court cases, closed courthouses in what became known as Shays' Rebellion. Congress could not raise money to send help, and the state raised its own force. Many leaders saw the episode as proof that the system was too fragile.
For a longer look at these problems, see Why Did the Articles of Confederation Fail?
What replaced the Articles
In September 1786, delegates from five states met at Annapolis, Maryland, to discuss trade. They had too few states to act, so they called for a wider meeting. The Philadelphia Convention opened in May 1787 with George Washington presiding. Congress had authorised it only to revise the Articles, but the delegates decided to write a new frame of government instead.
The Constitution was signed on 17 September 1787. It gave the national government power to tax, to regulate commerce and to raise an army, and it created a president and national courts. It also changed the rules of ratification: it needed approval by nine of the thirteen states, not all of them. New Hampshire became the ninth state on 21 June 1788, and the new government began on 4 March 1789.
What exams ask
- Dates. Drafted 1776 to 1777; adopted by Congress on 15 November 1777; in force 1 March 1781; replaced in 1789.
- Strengths. Won the war and secured independence; the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787; protected state liberties, which fit the fear of strong central power.
- Weaknesses. No power to tax or regulate commerce; one vote per state; nine of thirteen states for major laws; unanimity to amend; no executive and no national courts.
- Key event. Shays' Rebellion showed that the national government could not respond to a domestic crisis.
- Significance. The Articles explain why the Constitution has a strong executive, courts and taxing power, and why the Constitution also has checks on that power.
Read next
- Why Did the Articles of Confederation Fail? goes deeper into debt, trade and Shays' Rebellion.
- Treaty of Paris 1783: Britain Recognises the United States shows the biggest success of the Confederation period.
- The Declaration of Independence Explained covers the 1776 document that came before the Articles.
