1985 Dbq

you will be prosecuted for plagiarism

Rachel

1985 DBQ

The 1780's

The Articles of Confederation were well written, especially considering the fact that the U.S.A. was a brand-new country and had no knowledge whatsoever on how to run a country. Though they were good, the articles didn't provide America with a very effective government. Since the people were afraid of a centralized government that would become too powerful, they decided to move most issues to a state level, rather than a national one. This is problematic because of it's economic effects, and because of the effects on politics and the limitations of the federal governments.

From 1770 to 1775, as the population grew, so did the Estimated Market value of US exports to Great Britain. Then, after 1776, the inevitable happened: the economy took a nosedive. Though the population continued to steadily grow, the economy ceased to. Infact it dropped by almost 800 dollars, which isn't a lot of money now, but back then, it was a gigantic drop, especially considering all of the war expenses. Comparing the two time periods, (1770-1775 and 1784-1792) America's economy was at its best under British rule. The one pro that the articles brought on was the trading via the Mississippi River, though the treaty would be limited to 25 or 30 years. By assessing the numbers posed in document B, it is blatantly obvious that the Americans hadn't a clue as to how to run a country. The nosedive of the economy also had to do with the fact that the Articles of confederation didn't allow the federal government to tax, so the printed money meant nothing at all.

John Jay writes "What I most fear is, that the better kind of people, by which I mean the people who are orderly and industrious, who are content with their situations and not uneasy in their circumstances, will be led by the insecurity of property, the loss of confidence in their rulers, and the want of public faith and rectitude, to consider these charms of liberty as imaginary and delusive." He's writing to George Washington about how he's afraid that the people will lose their voices. By having the great politicians scared, one can assume that the people are even more scared.

Illustrated by document G, people didn't want their central government to have too much power, so they wrote the articles in such a fashion