US History To 1877
The Articles of Confederation was established to define the function of the federal government after the United States was declared to be independent of the rule of Great Britain. They wanted to prevent the individual states from forming the United States from having their foreign diplomacy. They were worried that some of the state governments or individuals in the national government could establish a relationship with other foreign countries and take them back to the dependent state.
There are numerous weaknesses which are associated with the Articles of Confederation. First, Congress did not have the power of coining money, and it made each state to come up with its currency (Jensen, 2017). Congress was also not able to regulate the foreign and inter-state businesses, and because of this, some states refused to pay for those goods that they imported from other countries. Thirdly, Congress was not able to impose the taxes and was just borrowing finances on credit. Fourth, there was no national court for protecting the rights of the citizens of the United States, and there was no even executive branch for enforcing laws. Fifth, for the amendment of laws to be done, it required approval for all the thirteen states. Similarly, it required 9 of 13 states for a law to pass in the Congress, and one vote was allotted to a state regardless of the population.
To address these challenges, there as the United States formed a constitution of addressing these challenges. The constitution allocated more powers/rights to the central government. Congress was given the right to levying taxes and to regulating interstate and inter-country trades. There was the formation of a federal court system as well as the executive branch for checks and balances for the judiciary (Robert, 2017). The amendments were made easier since it required ¾ of the house and 2/3 of Congress to be passed. Lastly, the representations in the house depending on the population.
References
Jensen, M. (2017). The Articles of Confederation: An Interpretation of the Social-constitutional History of the American Revolution 1774-1781. University of Wisconsin Press.
Robert, V. (2017). Part I Constitutional History, C 1867: Confederation, Ch.4 1867: Confederation. The Oxford Handbook of the Canadian Constitution, 5(1), 11-37.