Articles of Confederation Focus Questions

This is not part of your homework assignment that is due on Friday, but would be excellent preparation for your midterm exam. The answers can be found in pages 149-155 of your text.

• What was it about the concept of a republican government that so appealed to Americans?
• How did Americans propose to avoid what they considered to be the problems of the British system they were repudiating?
• What was unique about the constitution drawn up by Massachusetts?
• How did these new constitutions deal with the question of religious freedom? How did they deal with slavery?
• What type of government did the Articles of Confederation create? What were its major features?
• Why was the Confederation government organized as it was?
• Why was there a delay in its ratification? How were the obstacles to its ratification overcome?
• How did the Treaty of Paris of 1783 fail to resolve, or in some cases help to create, strain between the United States, England, and Spain?
• What commercial arrangements did American shippers and traders want after the war had ended? Why did they feel this was needed, and how successful were they in accomplishing their aims?
• What postwar problems existed between the United States and Spain? What attempts were made to solve the problems? Why did these attempts fail?
• How did the Confederate Congress attempt to solve the problem of the status of western territory that the states had ceded to it?
• Which interest groups favored which plans for the sale and distribution of land?
• How did the Confederation deal with the Indians who also claimed the western land?
• What were the sources of the Confederation's postwar economic problems? How did the government attempt to solve them? What were the results?
• Why was paper money seen as a solution to the economic problems of one element in American society? Who opposed this and why?
• How did the action of Daniel Shays and his followers relate to the economic problems of the Confederation period? What was the significance of the movement he led?
• Who were the advocated of centralization? Why did they want to alter or abolish the Articles of Confederation?
• What did those who favored centralization see as the most serious problem of the Articles? How would they have changed them? What had prevented any changes?