The Articles of Confederation was the FIRST GOVERNMENT of the United States of America.

It created a weak national government and strong state governments. It only had one branch, the legislative branch (congress). It had many different weaknesses which are listed below. These weaknesses included no executive branch (president), no judicial branch (supreme court), no national army and maybe most importantly no way to generate revenue through taxes.

Shay's Rebellion in Massachusetts exposed many of the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and put forward the future Constitutional Convention later that year in 1787.

• Declare war and make peace treaties

• Maintain an army and navy

• Operate post office

• Conduct foreign affairs

• The Northwest Ordinance was made under the Articles of Confederation

• Laws needed approval by 9 of 13 states

• Any amendments to the Articles must be approved by all 13 states

• No chief executive (president, king) or court system

• Congress did not have the power to:

  1. tax citizens. It could only request tax money from the states.

  2. draft an army. It could only request states to send men for military services.

  3. raise taxes or collect state debts owed to the federal government.

  4. to settle disputes among states

  5. establish common currency