disputes. This occurred because there was no court system.

The Articles of Confederation had difficulty responding to the problems our country faced. This occurred because the plan of government created by the Articles of Confederation created a weak federal government. Many people were concerned that a strong federal government would abuse its powers. Thus, while the government struggled to deal with the issues facing our country, there are explanations for these struggles.

Eventually, a meeting was held in Philadelphia to create a new plan of government.

The Articles of Confederation were quite successful in a number of ways; although in the long run they proved too cumbersome to form a long term system of government.

The Articles had several accomplishments, not the least of which is that the Confederation Government was responsible for managing the War. It soon ran into trouble with finances, etc. but did provide some degree of central authority to whom General Washington, etc. responded.

Secondly, the two Northwest Ordinances were quite effective in dealing with the issue of Northwest lands. They provided an orderly scheme of division, a means of financing the debts of the Confederacy, and a system for the admission of new states into the Union on equal footing with other states as well as the all important provision that prohibited slavery in the new territories.

Conversely, without a strong executive and with no power to tax, the Confederation could not function well. It was formed to avoid the very problems from which the Americans had just escaped, and was more a marriage of convenience than a "more perfect union." The cumbersome procedure for voting (by states with a three quarters majority required to act) and its limitations on raising revenue were inherent weaknesses which would prove its undoing.

The Articles of Confederation were, for the most part, ineffective in dealing with major national threats and issues of the time.  Without the power to tax, they could not raise the revenue necessary pay our $4 million Revolutionary War debt, nor could they raise an Army or build a Navy with which to protect the frontier or American shipping.  It toook a supermajority of 9/13 to pass a national law, which happened rarely, and a unanimous 13/13 to adopt an amendment and change the Articles themselves, which was really its fatal flaw. All of that being said, the central government under the Articles of Confederation did pass important legislation like the Land Ordinance of 1785, which created a public school system financed by the sale of public land and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 which, among other things, prohibited slavery in the Ohio Country.  Government under the Articles also successfully negotiated the Treaty of Paris ending the Revolutionary War in 1783. Shays' Rebellion was really the last straw, as some farmers in western Massachusetts showed how truly weak the government was when it could not effectively respond to their riots and protests.

The Articles of Confederation were really ineffective as it pertains to the new nation. The Articles of Confederation failed because they did not give Congress and the national government enough power.  The new United States just fought a war to end what they considered tyrannical rule of a strong government that overpowered local government and the leaders of the U.S. feared a powerful central government.  Because of this, they did not give the central government the power it needed to rule effectively.  It did not give Congress the power to tax, so the government ended up printing money which caused inflation. It did not give Congress the power to draft troops, so the U.S. military was small leaving the U.S. weak.  Congress did not have the power to control interstate commerce or stop states from printing their own money, causing economic chaos within the U.S. The Articles did not give Congress the power to place tariffs on foreign goods, hurting American businesses that could not compete with cheaper British goods. The U.S. government had no chief executive so there was no one to enforce the laws that were passed.  The list can go on. With the rebellion led by Daniel Shays in Massachusetts, the leaders of the U.S. realized the Articles were not working which led to the Constitutional Convention where the Articles were abandoned and the new U.S. Constitution was written, which addressed many of the problems found with the Articles.

The Articles of Confederation were basically not effective for the purposes of establishing a new nation. However, they served as a starting point in the process of compromise that was necessary to formulate a viable government.

"Confederation" means a loose grouping or association, which is what the newly independent states wanted. They did not want to yield any more power than absolutely necessary to any central governmental body or person. Creating a confederation allowed the states to maintain many separate functions. The national government was given the authority to declare war, but the individual states had responsibility for contributing financial support to pay for the war. The national government was responsible for foreign policy but had no finances to enforce military actions against foreign powers taking advantage of the new nation. Congress had no authority to regulate business between the states, which led to conflicts and uprisings.

As a result of living under the Articles of Confederation, representatives of the states realized the need to find a way to create a stronger central government that would have the authority needed to control and unify the new nation.

The Articles of Confederation provided a somewhat effective form of government for the colonies.  

There are two major things that can be said to show that the Articles provided an effective form of government.  First, they were able to get the new nation through the Revolutionary War and the few years immediately after.  Second, the government under the Articles created the Northwest Ordinance, which effectively set up a mechanism for bringing new lands into the country on an equal basis with the existing states.

However, the government under the Articles was not completely effective.  The government was not able to tax so it could not do things like paying its debts either at home or abroad.  The state governments had too much power and so there were things like trade wars between the states.  Both of these things hurt the US economy.

The Articles of Confederation set up a government that got the US through its first few years of existence.  However, they did not set up a government that was effective enough to serve for the long term.