U.S Constitution vs. Article of Confederation

The United States Constitution remedied the weakness of the Articles of Confederation by totally replacing it as the national law of the thirteen states. The Constitution put the ideas of the Articles of Confederation into greater detail by enumerating the rights of the people, the states, and the federal government. As the thirteen colonies were getting closer towards independence during the Revolutionary War, they needed to establish a unified government that would be enforced if the colonies were to win the revolution. In addition to that, the colonies needed a way gain support from France by showing that they were committed to the cause. After ratification of the Declaration of Independence, Continental Congress had a new task of creating a new document that would establish a foundation for a centralized government, enforced in all thirteen states, which would be known as the Articles of Confederation.

Articles are applied until the entry into force of the current U.S. Constitution in 1787. They allow the American confederation to make war, negotiate treaties, to resolve the issue of western lands, to print Continental currency and start borrowing from the inside and outside the country. This organization has been criticized by proponents of a stronger central power and the most populous states, which had the least populated as one voice in Congress.

The confederation was weakened by the lack of income (she could not get up for taxes, and depended on contributions from Member States), the competing interests and rivalries between states, in the context of the end of the war of independence and years after the peace of 1783.

After the colonies had finally proved triumphant from the War of Independence, the thirteen colonies ratified the Articles of Confederation over a course of a few years following the victory. However, it was not long until people began to realize that the Articles had given very little power to the central government, while they had given the states too much power, and created a weak governing foundation for the new nation. In attempt to fix the weakness existent in the Articles of Confederation, the Congress of Confederation (previously known as the Second Continental Congress) convened. By mid-June of 1787, it had become clear to the delegates that it was necessary to start from scratch, and completely rewrite the Articles of Confederation, creating the United States Constitution.

We often talk of the U.S. Constitution and the constitution still in force oldest in the world. However, it is necessary to point out that the constitution really is federal oldest written. As to whether it is the oldest constitution still in force, it should be noted that the Statutes of San Marino in 1600, which part of the fundamental law of the republic, together with the Electoral Act 1926 and the Bill of Rights of Citizens of 1974, would be older and often also identified as the oldest constitution in force, although opinions (especially from the American point of view) that they cannot speak of those statutes ...