America won the Revolutionary War against Britain . They had help from the French Navy and troop. This upset the balance of power between European Nations during the 1780’s. Britain , the most powerful nation was beaten by farmers, making it seem like they’re not as strong as they thought. This gave an opportunity for another country to fill the world leader role. America ’s main challenge was to create a government that balances Democracy and Dictatorship. That government is called a Republic where citizens elect representatives to make laws and run the government for them. These events caused the new American Republic to make the government weak through the Articles of Confederation.





The Articles of Confederation gave the national government the power to declare war, make peace and deal with Natives. This also included creating money and a national postal service. Each state created Constitutions to outline their own government. All these state constitutions guaranteed certain rights like, freedom or speech, press and religion. The laws of this Confederation was its greatest achievement because the established a blueprint for the future growth of the nation. These achievements and Constitutions left out African Americans and women.





The Articles of Confederation did have some challenges and weaknesses though. A political problem was that America owed $190 million in war debts to foreign countries. The wealthy local elite called Creditors who lend money had a conflict with farmers called Debtors who borrow money. Debtors wanted to increase the money supply to pay back easier but Creditors wanted to keep money supply low to make money worth more. There were also foreign relation problems like the United States couldn’t pay their debts to Britain so the British army stayed in America . Spain closed access to the Mississippi River to Americans, causing western farmers to lose money and land. But with all these problems, the national government couldn’t deal with them since the British didn’t pay back for the slaves they took.





The Articles of Confederation was weak since the states didn’t work together, like this quote says “The power lies within the states not the United States .” The state government rose taxes and Daniel Shays began a farmers rebellion. Because of this rebellion, it indicated to the leaders on America , the Articles failed. But they learned what it was to form a government and that the states would have to stay united. Congress planned to solve these problems by having the states sent representatives to a meeting in Philadelphia to discuss what could be done to improve the national government.