Major problems that led to the amending of the articles of confederation

1. 50

   A3017515555posted 13 years ago

   Major problems that led to the amending of the articles of confederation
   
   what major problems led to the call for a convention in philadelphia to amend the articles of confederation

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2. 70

   Larry Fieldsposted 13 years ago

   Offhand, I can think of 2 major problems--both related to finances. First there was hyperinflation of the 'Continental'.
   
   The second problem was Shays Rebellion. There was a very large per-capita war debt. And Massachusetts had a head tax. This hit farmers in the Western part of the state particularly hard, because to a large extent, they had a barter economy. With what were they going to pay their onerous war-debt taxes? The net results: lots of foreclosures on family farmers, dirt-cheap agricultural land for wealthy investors in the Eastern part of the state, lots of mad-as-hell-not-going-to-take-it-anymore people, and an embarrassing armed revolt.
   
   One consequence of Shays Rebellion was the Constitutional prohibition on head taxes. All of this is from memory. Please double-check with Wikipedia.

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3. 75

   ThoughtSandwichesposted 13 years ago

   The Articles of Confederation were drafted and limped towards ratification from 1776 to 1781 during a time of war with the strongest government in the world.  Born of the sentiment of the Declaration of Independence it provided for a very weak central Government.  These weaknesses hampered the war effort and threatened to destroy the resultant peace.
   
   Policies of currency, trade, defense, internal improvements, and diplomacy were being directed from the capitals of thirteen individual states rather than a national Capital City that didn’t even exist for that purpose. 
   
   Shay’s Rebellion proved the final embarrassment to the Confederation after Massachusetts militia had to put down the rebellion and secure the Confederation Government property (an Armory in Springfield) from those angry farmers who had fought in the Revolution.
   
   It was agreed that changes were required.  The Revolution of 1776 (embodied in the Declaration of Independence), and expressed in The Articles of Confederation, was to be transformed with a counter-revolution of a stronger national government in the form of the current Constitution.

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