Articles Of Confedoration: Weaknesses

Question 1

How was the confederation unsuccessful in government ?

Answer 1

• votes were disproportionately distributed with each state holding one vote which meant smaller states such as Rhode Island had the same power as Massachusetts’s
• States acted selfishly and often ignored congress instead being absorbed by their own affairs
• smaller state assemblies had more power than congress so polticians chose to serve in them as they made the decisions affecting life at state level not congress
• discredited congress and added to the loose accociation of states rather than a country
• many elites argued against this but they were ignored

Question 2

How did the confederation fail with Britian with its policies ?

Answer 2

Britain
- Britian still occupied some areas that American failed to observe in the treaty
- Congress urged states not to get in the way of British merchants recovering debts the states ignored their advice
- turned a deaf ward when congress recommend the return of loyalist land
- it could hardly earn respect aborad, 1785 John adams was rebuffed from Britian after requesting evacuation of frontier posts. Britian argued it couldn’t negotiate with the confederation as it couldn’t control its own states