Articles of Confederation (copy) (mar 1, 1781 – mar 1, 1789)

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The Articles of Confederation was the first constitution for the United States of American, which was coined by the Articles. The Articles were proposed by the Continental Congress as the colonies believed that a stronger cooperation and central government was needed to defeat the British in the Revolutionary War. The Continental Congress was renamed the the Congress of the Confederation, but it was mostly known by its own name because its duties were practically the same. This new central government created by the Articles was able to deal with stuff on the national level, such as treaty and alliances making, money printing, and army maintenance. However, fearing the overreach by the central government, the Articles of Confederation created a "league of friendship" and a weak central government that was built on the principle that each state remained independent and sovereign. This greatly limited the effectiveness of the new government because of its inability to perform certain tasks, such as tax collection, control over interstate trade, and the enforcement of laws. The government also only had an unicameral legislative branch lacked executive and judicial branches. Amendments to the constitution would also require the agreement of all of the states, which was extremely inconvenient.

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