Articles of Confederation Flashcards
Valley Forge
Long, cold winter of 1777-1778
Americans are starving, have little water, no supplies, no clothes or shoes and diseases are breaking out specifically smallpox. Washington thought of a solution to prevent smallpox- make small cuts in the arm and apply a little of the disease into the blood so the immune system can learn to fight it off- this majorly helped saved the camp.
Also at Valley Forge Baron Von Steuben came alone and helped the Continatel army in many ways. One way was by makiing the camp sanitary- organize where to bathe, where to drink water, where to go to the bathroom. Another way he helped was by training the army into an elite army !
Advantages of the Americans
- Not fighting in pen laand so they know their surrounding, where british know nothing about American woods
- Fighting with a passion
- Fighting guerrilla warfare
- British supplies and men are 3000 miles away
- Invention of the Spiral shotgun- the bullet will come out in a spiral and gives perfect accuracy
- American tactic to kill the British officials first and leave the british soldiers with no direction
Battle at Yorktown- end of the RW
British are surrounded by Americans on land, and French by sea. Americans won the fort and 2 days later British surrendered!
Treaty of Paris
The talk about the treaty of paris began in 1782. It recognized America as independent from England.
Colonies borders- northern stopped at the Great Lakes and southern stopped at Spanish Florida, all land eat of the Mississippi River.
Spanish borders- west of the Mississippi River, West florida, and Spanish Florida
British- Canada
Northwest territory became Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin
Americans were supposed to pay loyalist back their lost land but never did. British were supposed to take down there forts but never did.
Articles of Confederation
CREATED A VERY LOOSE ALLIANCE WITH THE 13 COLONIES
-organized all the states
-waged war for independence against British
-negotiated the peace treaty with British
-people could control their own government
-declared war and made peace treaties
-only legislative branch
PASSED THE NORTHWEST ORDINANCE OF 1787
Had many weaknesses=
-congress had no money- couldn’t tax
-congress had no power over the states- laws weren’t being enforced
-congress had no power to regulate trade between states or other nations
-no national army or navy
Popular Sovereignty
sovereignty= highest authority
so POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY= people have the highest power
Land Ordinance of 1785
- did not set up a government
- set up a system for settling in the northwest territory
- divided into townships and sections
- each township set aside a section for public schools= still today
- sold sections for $640, it was a way for the government to raise money
- did not define how land becomes a state
- was to be divided into 10 different states
- land west of the Appalachian Mts. North of the Ohio river and east of the Mississippi River
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
MOST SIGNIFICANT ACHIEVEMENT OF THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION !
- set up a government for the northwest territory- addressed political needs for the territory
- guaranteed basic rights
- no slavery
- freedom of religion
- right to a trial
- divided regions into separate territories
- the states were to encourage education but didn’t require public eductaion
- once population reached 60,000 could apply to be a state
- established an admission to the US for all states
- territory included OH, IA, IL, MI, W
- accelerated westward expansion of the US
Shays’ Rebellion
The uprising of farmers to protest high state taxes and heavy debt led by Daniel Shays in western MA from 1786-1787
- didn’t win but portrayed how the Articles of Confederation was a weak government and a new constitution was needed!
Constitutional Convention
55 delegates from the 13 colonies came to Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation, every state sent representatives except for Rhode Island. Ended up not revising the articles but writing a whole new constitution in its place. This constitution we still use today. Wanted to be a secret so they kept the windows close- very hot in the building.
Virginia Plan
Edmund Randolph and James Madison proposed this plan.
- called for a strong national government
- with 3 branches= legislative, Executive, and Judicial
- Legislative: pass laws
- Executive: carry out the laws
- Judicial: system of courts would decide if the laws are being carried out fairly
- 2 houses= amount of representatives would be decided based on the population of the state
New Jersey Plan
- small states opposed the VA plan because they feared that larger states could easily out vote the smaller states
- 3 branches of government
- one house= each state had one representative no matter how large a population
Great Compromise
- 2 house legislature= upper and lower
- Upper: chose by state legislatures no matter what population each state got 2 senates
- Lower: based on population
- this compromise won
3/5 compromise
southern states wanted slaves to be counted as population, so they can get more representatives in the lower house but not for taxation purposes. Northern states said that if they are counted as population they should be taxed to. Congress decided on 3/5 of the slaves be counted as population (lower house) and taxation purposes
General facts:
- both plans wanted a strong national government
- 52 delegates signed the constitution
- Rhode Island sent no representatives and signed the constitution last
- preamble of constitution sets the goals and plans of the constitution
- federal government= local, state, and national governments together
- Virginia has the biggest population
- Rhode Island has the smallest population
- we are democracy government
