ADVANTAGES
It made sure that every state wasn't over ruled by a strong national government. A lot of the smaller states, such as Rhode Island, were afraid of not having a voice. With the Articles, each state was independent. Also with them having to creating their own government they were able to create laws which suited their state properly, only the people of their own state knows what their state needs.
Another point is it was a learning experience for the founders. They learned what did and did not work from the articles and using their experience they drafted the new outline and Constitution for the US.
There were many disadvantages of the Articles of Confederation (soon to be replaced by the U.S. Constitution).
Here are some:
- No power to generate revenue (tax)
- No central government power
- Under the Articles of Confederation, we had no President, therefore we also had no leader to follow.
- There was foreign currency between states (for example: If you lived in Georgia and traveled to Missouri, the states would have different currencies therefore you could be rich in one state and in another state you could be of the lowest poverty.)
- There was no power to enforce the states to follow the laws.
- We had no way to gather an army (no protection against foreign countries).
- We had no power to control/regulate trade.
- No national court system. (this means you commit all the crimes you want in one state, and if you simply moved to another state you would have no even the slightest charges on your head, and no one could do anything about it!)
As you can see there were many weaknesses to the Articles of Confederations. That is why the founding fathers later replaced it with the U.S. Constitution.
