Winning Independence & the Articles of Confederation

You’ll be able to

Identify the factors that enabled the American victory in the Revolutionary War
Explain the structure and weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation
Analyze how the failures of the Articles led to the Constitutional Convention

How the Americans won

The Patriots overcame the world’s strongest military through several advantages. George Washington kept the Continental Army intact rather than seeking decisive battles. The victory at Saratoga (1777) persuaded France to enter the war as an ally, supplying crucial money, troops, and naval power. Americans fought on home ground for a cause they believed in, while Britain struggled to supply an army across an ocean. The decisive siege at Yorktown (1781), won with French help, led to the Treaty of Paris (1783), which recognized independence and granted lands to the Mississippi.

A government afraid of power

Having just fought a tyrannical central authority, Americans wrote the Articles of Confederation (ratified 1781) to keep power in the states. The Articles created a weak one-house Congress with no executive, no national judiciary, and no power to tax or regulate commerce. Amending the Articles required unanimous consent. This design reflected a deliberate fear of centralized tyranny — but it left the new nation nearly unable to govern itself.

Successes and fatal weaknesses

The Confederation had real achievements, above all the Northwest Ordinance (1787), which set an orderly, revolutionary process for admitting new states as equals and banned slavery in the Northwest Territory. But the weaknesses were crippling: Congress could not raise revenue, pay its debts, or compel cooperation. Shays’ Rebellion (1786–87), an uprising of indebted Massachusetts farmers that the national government could not suppress, convinced many elites that the Articles had to be replaced before the republic collapsed.

Worked example

Briefly explain ONE weakness of the Articles of Confederation revealed by events of the 1780s.

1.Name a specific weakness: Congress had no power to tax and no means to enforce order.
2.Tie it to an event: when Shays’ Rebellion erupted, the national government could not raise a force to put it down.
3.State the significance: this exposed the government’s inability to maintain domestic stability and spurred calls for a stronger union.

Answer: The Articles denied Congress the power to tax or field a national army, so when Shays’ Rebellion broke out in Massachusetts the central government was helpless to respond — a failure that convinced leaders the framework needed to be replaced.

Checkpoint

Which was the most significant weakness of the Articles of Confederation?

Watch out

Give the Articles credit where due: the Northwest Ordinance was a genuine success, establishing how territories become equal states and barring slavery in the Northwest. Dismissing the Articles as a total failure misses nuance graders reward.

Checkpoint

Shays’ Rebellion is historically significant chiefly because it

Answer the 2 checkpoints as you read.