The Confederation relied on the voluntary efforts of the states to send tax money to the central government. The central government couldnвЂ™t collect taxes to fund its operations. Given the rivalries between the states, that rule made the Articles impossible to adapt after the war ended with Britain in 1783.Д¦. The Articles required unanimous consent to any amendment, so all 13 states would need to agree on a change. The document was practically impossible to amend.

Requiring this high supermajority made it very difficult to pass any legislation that would affect all 13 states.ДҐ. Congress needed 9 of 13 states to pass any laws. This reinforced the power of the states to operate independently from the central government, even when that wasnвЂ™t in the nationвЂ™s best interests.Д¤. The Articles Congress only had one chamber and each state had one vote. But it didnвЂ™t have an executive official or judicial branch.ДЈ. The Articles established вЂњthe United States of AmericaвЂќ as a perpetual union formed to defend the states as a group, but it provided few central powers beyond that. The central government was designed to be very, very weak. Maryland held out until March 1781, after it settled a land argument with Virginia.Дў. It took until February 1779 for 12 states to approve the document. Here is a quick list of the problems that occurred, and how these issues led to our current Constitution.ДЎ. The document made official some of the procedures used by the Congress to conduct business, but many of the delegates realized the Articles had limitations. The Articles formed a war-time confederation of states, with an extremely limited central government. The British capture of Philadelphia also forced the issue. Two days earlier, the Second Continental Congress approved the document, after a year of debates. On November 17, 1777, Congress submitted the Articles to the states for immediate consideration. It didnвЂ™t last a decade, for some obvious reasons. It was on this day in 1777 that the Articles of Confederation, the first American constitution, was sent to the 13 states for consideration.

Confederation of independent systems