U.S.

History
The Creation of the United States of America
Think about what you know about the U.S.
Civil War

Quietly write down any reasons you know

why the North and South fought the Civil
War, excluding the issue of slavery

Compare and share

 Revolutionary War

It was essential that all the states

cooperate in the common defense because
the fighting had already begun. Great
Britain was now preparing to wage full-
scale war to maintain sovereignty (what?)
over its North American colonies.
What do you
know?

The Articles of
Confederation
 The Articles of
Confederation
The Continental Congress went to work on an
agreement for a type of government

The result was a type of national government called

a confederation

In a confederation, each state would keep its

independence, but all would work together on
common concerns

Articles of Confederation adopted in November,

1777, ratified in 1781 - It served as the U.S.’s first
constitution until 1789 (what?)
 Article One

“The stile of this Confederacy shall be ‘The

United States of America’”

Stile = old-fashioned word that means

“form” or “name”

Article One = Names the new nation

Articles Two & Three

Article Two - makes it clear each of the

states would remain free and independent

Article Three - the states enter into a firm

league of friendship with each other and
establish the confederation

Each state agreed to come to the aid of any

other state that came under attack
Remaining Articles
A Congress of delegates from the states
would meet each year to manage common
issues

Delegate - a person sent or authorized to

represent others (usually elected)

Each state would get one vote in the

Congress

Only the Congress could conduct foreign

relations and declare war
The Articles helped hold the 13 states together during
the Revolution. But those years also revealed the
major weakness of the Articles.

The plan gave Congress the power to make some

decisions, but it did NOT give Congress the power to
enforce its decisions.

Think about how this might play out - Can you think of
any potential problems? - Hint: What did Article Two
state?
For example: Congress had power to make decisions
on the war for independence, yet it could not tax, nor
could it force the states to pay the funds needed by
the American army.

The result was that money for the war effort often
wasn’t available. Often times soldiers went unpaid
and/or without supplies - which battle in the Rev. War
is a good example of this scenario?
 Weakness of the
Articles
It gave the national government too little power to
operate effectively

In a confederation, the states (not Congress) had

final say on almost everything

Also, there was really only one part to the national

government, the Congress itself

The three-part system America has today

(Congress, President, Supreme Court) did NOT
exist under the Articles of Confederation
The End of the Articles

Difficulty governing the new nation became even

more apparent after the Revolution

Year after year, the states seemed less and less

united

A special meeting of the delegates from the

states was set up in 1787 to consider revising the
Articles (what was this Convention called?)
 Constitutional
Convention
Delegates met in Independence Hall (where is
this?) through the summer of 1787

Decided that a system based on a confederation of

the states would never work well

They began creating a completely new design for

the national government

The plan - The United States Constitution - was

completed that summer
U.S. Constitution

Rather than any type of confederation of

states, the Constitution set up a national
system based ultimately on the citizens of
the nation

Hence, the opening words of the document

are “We the People”
Federalist Papers

The Federalist Papers advocated the

ratification (what?) of the Constitution and
were written by these men:

James Madison

John Jay

Alexander Hamilton
 New and Improved
Government!
The Constitution set up a much better balance of
power between the national government and the
states

This kind of system, the sharing of

responsibilities between the states and the
federal government, is called federalism

The U.S. Constitution was ratified (confirmed or

approved) by the states in 1788
MVP (Most Valuable
Point)

One key idea or point I got from today’s lesson

was…

This is important because…

The Art. of Con. didn’t work very well, but they worked
well enough to give the nation’s leaders a way to work
together in a time of crisis and danger.

Articles or Constitution Writing Assignment:

If you could go back to the American Revolution era
and have a position of power, would you try to
persuade the “Founding Fathers” to revise the Articles
of Confederation (state-oriented) to try and make it
work, OR would you support the ratification of the
Constitution (federalism)? Give specific reasons why
you are FOR one and AGAINST the other (6-8
COMPLETE sentences).