True
The Articles of Confederation were a disaster. While the framers of the Articles intended for the federal government to be weak, they made it so weak to the point that a rebellion started!
One of the biggest flaws in the Articles was that it did not require state governments to give the federal government any funding. Because of this, the states refused to give the federal government any funding whatsoever. As a result, a national army could not be created because of lack of funding.
On top of not being able to pay for a national army, the federal government could not pay for any of its debts either. Because America had just gone through a Revolutionary War, the federal government (and state governments) were swamped in debt from all the borrowing during the battles.
Because states had so much debt, they would refuse to give any money to the federal government, which in turn could not pay off their debts either. States began imposing heavy taxes on their citizens, and even began taking land from people. It became so bad that a grassroots rebellion known as Shay's Rebellion began. Luckily, it was quelled before it became too dangerous.
Shay's Rebellion helped the Framers realize that there was something seriously wrong with the Articles. They held a Constitutional convention and ratified the current Constitution that we have today. In the Constitution, the federal government is significantly stronger than that of the federal government in the articles. While some people still argued for a weak federal government (Antifederalists), the people who supported a strong federal government (Federalists) won.
- T.B.
