The Articles of Confederation:

A set of laws that were drawn up in 1777
and approved in 1781 after the
surrender of the British Troops for
governing the new country of the United
States of America

Established a limited national
government
Under the Articles of
Confederation:
Most governing power was given to the states
 Set up 1 legislative branch: Each of the 13
colonies could send as many delegates as they
wanted to this congress
 Each state only had 1 vote on any legislature
brought in front of them, no matter how many
representatives they sent
 Any issues involving money needed 9 votes to
pass this made it difficult for government to get
anything passed

Under the Articles of
Confederation(continued):

Central government had the power to wage
war

Central government did not have the power to
tax, they could petition the states for money,
but the states did not have to give it to them
Problems with the Articles of
Confederation:

There was no unified economy and the debt
from the Revolutionary war could not be
covered

The national government was weak
Annapolis Convention:

A convention held in 1786 in Annapolis,
Maryland to deal with the weaknesses of
the Articles of Confederation

Only five states sent delegates, and the
convention was a failure

The group agreed to meet again in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1787 to fix
the problems with government
Shays’ Rebellion:
Was an uprising in Massachusetts by
farmers, lead by Daniel Shays, who
opposed a very high tax placed on them by
state congress
 They felt that they did not have proper
representation, they began to riot and
because the central government was so
weak they could not send an army to stop
the problems
 This convinced the other states to want to
meet in Philadelphia to fix the problems
weakening the central government
