Essential Question:

1

• Essential Question
• What were the long-term problems with the
  Articles of Confederation?
• Reading Quiz Ch 7B (p.217-229)

2
Examining the Articles of Confederation
3
The Weaknesses of the Articles

• The Articles of Confederation served as the
  framework for the U.S. govt from 1781 until
  1789
• Early in the Confederation Period, the weakness
  of the national govt was seen as good because
  it eliminated tyranny
• Later, these same weaknesses kept the govt from
  solving serious national problems

4
Economic Problems

• During the American Revolution, colonial boycotts
  hurt trade
• Everyone expected the economy to improve after
  independence, but the Confederation Congress had
  a difficult time
• Paying off debt collecting taxes
• Halting inflation
• Generating a favorable balance of trade (foreign
  domestic)

5
Debt, Taxes, Inflation
The govt could request, but not require, states
to send money to Congress

• The U.S. was burdened with 40 million in war
  debt in 1783
• The Confederate Congress could not ease the
  national debt because it had no power to tax
• Congress printed 200 million in new currency to
  pay off debt but this led to massive inflation
• Creditors demanded repayment of debts at market
  value

6
Trade Problems under the Articles
Connecticut levied heavier duties on
Massachusetts goods than on British goods

• Congress was unable to create a favorable balance
  of trade
• To raise revenue, states created tariffs on goods
  from other states
• The lack of hard currency made trade difficult
• Desire for cheap British goods hurt infant
  American industries
• England prohibited its Caribbean colonies from
  trading with USA

This especially hurt Southern planters
This especially hurt the North
7
U.S. Trade with Britain, 1783-1789
Debt
8
Economic Problems
Washington kept generals from overthrowing the
new government "Gentlemen, you will permit me to
put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown
gray but almost blind in the service of my
country."

• The economic stagnation of the Confederation era
  led to uprisings
• The lack of tax revenue failure of the govt to
  pay soldiers sparked a military coup in 1783
  called the Newburgh Conspiracy
• Property foreclosures led to desperation
  uprising farmers in 1787 called Shays Rebellion

Shays Rebellion proved to be the convincing
event that led to the Constitutional Convention
of 1787
9
Shays Rebellion in Western Massachusetts

• Poor farmers in western MA were angered over high
  taxes prospect of debtors jail
• Daniel Shays led an uprising closed debt courts
  threatened a federal arsenal

10
Economic Problems

• Nationalists called for a stronger central
  govt a constitutional amendment to allow
  create a 5 import tax a national bank
• 12 states agreed, but a group of Rhode Island
  Localists refused killed the amendment
• The failure to reform the Articles led
  Nationalists to consider the Articles hopelessly
  defective

Led by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison,
Robert Morris
A national debt if not excessive, will be a
national blessingHamilton
11
Foreign Policy Problems
Congress the army were too weak to resist

• The Articles proved inadequate to handle
  interstate foreign affairs
• When Americans did not repay legitimate war
  debts, Britain kept troops in the Ohio Valley
• Spain refused to recognize the southern U.S.
  border closed access to the Mississippi River
• Algerian pirates attacked enslaved American
  merchants
• States argued over river rights

John Jays Jay-Gardoqui Treaty was met with
regional resistance was rejected in Congress
12
The USA in the Confederate Era
13
Have We Fought for This?

• Have we fought for this? Was it with these
  expectations that we launched into a sea of
  trouble?
• George Washington, 1785