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Articles of Confederation

Total words: 479

Current rating for this essay is: 5

The Articles of Confederation can be called the back-bone of the Constitution, the blue-prints or the foundation to which the Constitution was built. Although the Articles of Confederation were not wholly successful, they still were an effective from of government pertaining to issues such as western lands and economic policies. Adopted by Congress in 1777, shortly after declaring independence, the Articles of Confederation regulated and helped the newly forming nation.

The Articles of Confederation proved to be an effective form of government in respect to the western lands. Before the Articles put into effect the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the 13 colonies were bickering over the Old Northwest. The Old Northwest was an area of land that laid east of the Mississippi River, south of the Great Lakes, and northwest of the Ohio River. The thirteen colonies were mainly divided up between six jealous states, including Pennsylvania, that wanted the benefit of having claims to the western lands, verse the seven favored states, such as New York and Virginia, that had claims to the Old Northwest. The first law that the Articles put into action to try and put an end to the civil fighting was the Land Ordinance of 1785. This law stated that the acreage of the Old Northwest should be sold to help pay off the national debt. The Northwest would be divided up into six townships, six square miles each , which in return would be split up into thirty-six sections of one square mile each. For every sixteenth section of each township, it would be set aside for a public school which greatly benefited the newly forming nation.

The Articles of Confederation also ordered another law to be put into effect concerning the western lands, called the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. The colonies would now have to give up their claims beyond the Allegheny Mountains, for the "common benefit." The ordinance officially stated that first a territory would be subordinate to the federal government. Then when its inhabitants reached sixty-thousand , it might be admitted by Congress as a state, with all the privileges of a state. The ordinance forbade slavery in the Old Northwest, another benefit for the nation. These ordinances pertaining to the western lands, formed a sense of unity. Now that certain states gave up their claims to the Old Northwest to benefit the union as a whole, it created a stronger bond between the states. If Congress were to have gone about the problem of the western lands in a different way, for example attempting to chain the new territories in permenant subordination a second Revolution might have broken out , this time between the West and the East within the new nation.

The Articles of Confederation proved to be an effective form of government referring to the economic conditions at that time.

klarissa Reviewed this free essay on Oct:14:2008

I DID NOT LEARN ANYTHING I WANTED TOO KNOW LIST OF HOW WAYS MIGHT B3 DIFFRENT NOW IF THE THE US WAS STILL GOVERNED BY THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDRATION!!!! PS....i n33d LIST!!!!!!!!! =-((

hannah Reviewed this free essay on Oct:12:2008

its a good essay but i would put more of your analysis in it.

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