How Did The Articles Of Confederation Lead To The 1787 Constitution

The structure of The Articles of Confederation led to the 1787 Constitution by failing to decrease the nation’s debt, decide on rulings efficiently, and enforce acts adopted . Through situations such as Shay’s Rebellion and the obstruction of trade by the Spanish government on the Mississippi River, the federal government demonstrated its lack of authority and coherence. The original strategy for the new nation was to present the federal government with very little power and allow the states to run as they pleased to avoid oppression from a national body. This mindset led to Congress becoming unable to tax the states to help eradicate the debts accumulated during the Revolution. Each state had its own regulations for trade and denied the national government any money. Although pleasing to the individual states, unregulated trading and
While the states had an abundance of power, deadlocks occurred frequently in sessions of Congress because of the 9 out of 13 states needed to pass a law. Failing to create a solution, the United States suffered greatly when the Spanish stopped Southern trade on the Mississippi River. Greater in number, the Northern tradesmen were adapting and compromising while less southern states couldn’t avoid the halt in their commerce. The national government couldn’t help due to the nature of their ratification process. Each state had one vote, no matter the size, creating unnecessary tensions that were resolved when the 1787 Constitution established a House of Representative and a Senate. These two bodies allowed each state to be heard coinciding with the magnitude of population and also ignoring the size of each. In addition, the new Constitution created an Executive Branch to take away some of the dominance in the states and effectively pass laws through a system of checks and balances that benefitted America as a