American History I has begun discussing the early development of our country and our government. Specifically, the creation of the Constitution.
EXTRA CREDIT: Describe our first government immediately after the revolution. What was it and how did it work? Were there problems with this government? If so, what were some of them?
Summer Steele
ReplyDeleteAfter the American Revolution the government became a rebuplic governtment. Meaning that there were represenatives elected by the people from each state. There were many problems with this government. Britain refused to take or give any goods to America. Inflation stormed through the states. Every price raised dramatically. No one had any money not even Congress. There was worry that there would be 13 nations instead of 13 states.
Immediately after the American Revolution, our government became a a republic government. A republic is a nation ruled by elected representatives of people. In a republic government people would be making an agreement for the common good, it would derive it's authority from the consent of the governed, and that there were fundamental laws that are different from ordinary laws. There were many problems that formed because of this form of government. One problem we had was that we did not have the power to earn the respect from other nations. Britain discriminated against american trading and refused to give its forts up in the western lands. We also had problems with Spain, who threatened to restrict American use of the lower Mississippi River. Another big problem was our financial problems. America was in a lot of debt from the Revolutionary war because the people of America paid for the war. Having no money was a disadvantage to America because they didn't have enough money to pay for a military. This scared some people because they wanted to have definite protection from their country, and they couldn't have it. Also because of the loss of money, congress started to issue paper money. It seemed like a good idea, but it resulted in inflation. Prices began to raise because the paper money wasn't worth as much as the coin money. Having all of these different currencies caused problems for the states who's money wasn't worth as much. This caused disputes between certain states. Some states also had disputes against each other with the boundary lines. At this time there were no definite boundary lines between the states, and there were some states who thought they had a right to have certain areas of land. Another problem with this government was that it had no president. The people wanted and needed someone to make big decisions for them and to keep them in line. Some people thought that this government was going to lead to anarchy and then tyranny. The idea of a republic government was a good ideas for the people of America, but without any structure and leadership it lead them no where. This form of government caused more problems than it fixed.
ReplyDelete-Hannah Price
The government after the revolution was based of the Articles of Confederation, and it had more than one problem. The people elected almost everything and the states had the power, while we had a very weak central government. Since we didn't have our foreign tradings/allies set up we didn't do a whole lot of trading and we couldn't even make anyone pay taxes so we had no money to pay off our debts. And the worse of it is we didn't have coin money set up. Each state even had their own print of money because the continental dollar wasn't worth anything.
ReplyDelete- Austin Boyd
The first government after the Revolution was a Republic, and the "rules" for this government were stated in the Articles of Confederation. Our first government was a group of elected leaders who in reality had very little powers. Under the Articles of Confederation, the states became like thirteen mini-countries. Each state had different currency, trade agreements, and many had their own Bill of Rights. In order for a change to be made to the Articles of Confederation, all of the states had to approve of it. This government had many problems, most of them based on the lack of a strong centralized government. Many other countries refused to trade with us because they weren't sure if they were dealing with one country or thirteen, and if all of the states would abide by trade agreements. The fact that each state had its own currency was also a problem. All money was worth different things so the states got into arguments over trade. Also, the fact that there wasn't really a strong central government to bring these issues to and to help keep order in the states was another problem in the early U.S. government.
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