Articles of Confederation vs. Constitution of the United States of America

Essay by hahaha May 2002

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Articles of Confederation vs. Constitution of the United States of America

When the United States of America was formed, the leaders had to come up with a structure to pattern the government after. They did this in a written document. Their first document was the Articles of Confederation. After ten years of using this document, they found several weaknesses in it a determined that they needed to rewrite it. The second document became the Constitution of the United States of America. The Articles of Confederation and the Constitution of the United States of America were both written in the latter 1700's with the purpose of patterning the United States government after them and both of the documents have strengths and weaknesses.

The Articles of Confederation had several strengths. This document provided a process for which more states could be admitted. Most of this process came from the Land Ordinance of 1785, which divided the land given up by the larger states into townships and created between three and five states from it, and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which gave the process a territory must go through in order to become a state.

The Articles of Confederation was also a good teacher to the leaders of the country. It let the leaders gain experience in running a country and gave them time to make some mistakes. It allowed them to find their own strengths and weaknesses and improve upon them. They were allowed to build up an army and navy and get some military experience. They were also allowed to learn a little about dealing with foreign affairs.

However, the Articles of Confederation were not perfect. In fact, it had several weaknesses. It did dot give congress the power to tax or regulate commerce. Congress was not allowed...