(4) People in the United States have freedom of movement: anyone can pass freely between states, except for "paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice." When a person travels into one state, he gets all of the rights that state gives to people that live there. If a person commits a crime in one state and runs away to another state, and he is found, he will be extradited to the state where the crime happened, and tried there.
(5) Each state gets one vote in the "Congress of the Confederation" (called the "United States in Congress Assembled"). Each state can bring a group of two to seven delegates to the Congress. Each state's legislature chooses its Members of Congress. Members of Congress cannot serve for more than three out of any six years.
(6) Only the confederation government is allowed to conduct foreign policy (work with other countries) and to declare war. Without Congress's permission, no states may have navies or full-time armies, and no states may fight in any war. However, the Articles encouraged each state to have militias.
(7) When an army is raised for common defense, the state legislatures will choose Colonels and military ranks below Colonel.
(8) The United States will pay for things using money that the state legislatures will raise. Not every state will have to pay the same amount. States with higher property values will pay more.
(9) The confederation government has these powers: to declare war; to set weights and measures (including coins); and for Congress to serve as a final court for disagreements between states.
(10) A "Committee of the States" will be the government when Congress is not meeting.
(11) Nine states must agree before a new state is accepted into the Confederation. Canada is already approved, if it applies for membership.
(12) The Confederation accepts war debt from before the Articles.
(13) The Articles can only be changed if Congress and "all" of the state legislatures agree.
The Articles of Confederation created the Congress of the Confederation, which was formally named the "United States in Congress Assembled". It became the governing body of the United States. The Congress of the Confederation had both legislative and executive powers. This meant the Congress could make the laws and enforce the laws. The states sent delegates chosen from the state legislature. The states had one vote each.
The Committee of the States was also created by the Articles of Confederation. It was also known as Council of State. It was meant to be the government when the Congress of the Confederation was not meeting. Each state had one member. The Committee had one meeting in 1784. Why was it so difficult for the United States government under the Articles of Confederation to respond to revolts like Shay's Rebellion? The National Government could not draft an Army and use federal troops to respond to riots and revolts
History of the United States
The history of the United States is what happened in the past in the United States, a country in North America.
Native Americans lived in the Americas for thousands of years. English people in 1607 went to the place now called Jamestown, Virginia. Other European settlers went to the colonies, mostly from England and later Great Britain. France, Spain, and the Netherlands also colonized North America. In 1775, a war between the thirteen colonies and Britain began when the colonists were upset over paying taxation to their government in the UK, but were not being given any chance to vote in the UK/British elections, to contribute to how that money was spent.
Just after dawn on April 19, 1775, the British attempted to disarm the Massachusetts militia at Concord, Massachusetts, this beginning the war with the "" On July 4, 1776, Founding Fathers wrote the United States Declaration of Independence. They won the Revolutionary War and started a new country. They signed the constitution in 1787 and the Bill of Rights in 1791. General George Washington, who had led the war, became its first president. During the 19th century, the United States gained much more land in the West and began to become industrialized. In 1861, several states in the South attempted to leave the United States to start a new country called the Confederate States of America. This caused the American Civil War. After the war, Immigration resumed. Some Americans became very rich in this Gilded Age, and the country developed one of the largest economies in the world.
In the early 20th century, the United States became a world power, fighting in World War I and World War II. Between the wars, there was an economic boom called the Roaring Twenties, when many people became richer, and a bust, called the Great Depression, when most were poorer. The Great Depression ended with World War II.
The United States and the Soviet Union entered the Cold War. This included wars in Korea and Vietnam. During this time, African-Americans, Chicanos, and women sought more rights. In the 1970s and 1980s, the United States started to make fewer things in factories. The country then went through the worst recession it had since the Great Depression. In the late 1980s, the Cold War ended, helping the United States out of recession. The Middle East became more important in American foreign policy, especially after the September 11 attacks in 2001. In the 2010s, Barack Obama's presidency helped many domestic problems in the country such as the auto business and healthcare coverage. After Obama, the country saw a rise in populist politics with the presidency of Donald Trump. In 2020, the country oversaw the COVID-19 pandemic, social unrest over racial justice and disputes over the 2020 election results which led to violent reactions.
The Pre-Columbian Era is the time before Christopher Columbus went to the Americas in 1492. At that time, Native Americans lived on the land that is now controlled by the United States. They had various cultures: Native Americans in the Eastern Woodlands hunted game and deer; Native Americans in the Northwest fished; Native Americans in the Southwest grew corn and built houses called pueblos; and Native Americans in the Great Plains hunted Bison. Around the year 1000, the Vikings visited Newfoundland. However, they did not settle there.
The English tried to settle at Roanoke Island in 1585. The settlement did not last, and no one knows what happened to the people. In 1607, the first lasting English settlement was made at Jamestown, Virginia, by John Smith, John Rolfe and other Englishmen interested in gold and adventure. In its early years, many people in Virginia died of disease and starvation. The colony in Virginia lasted because it made money by planting tobacco.
In 1621, a group of Englishmen called the Pilgrims settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts. A bigger colony was built at Massachusetts Bay by the Puritans in 1630. The Pilgrims and the Puritans were interested in making a better society, not looking for gold. They called this ideal society a "city on a hill". A man named Roger Williams left Massachusetts after disagreeing with the Puritans, and started the colony of Rhode Island in 1636.
Great Britain was not the only country to settle what would become the United States. In the 1500s, Spain built a fort at Saint Augustine, Florida. France settled Louisiana, and the area around the Great Lakes. The Dutch settled New York, which they called New Netherland. Other areas were settled by Scotch-Irish, Germans, and Swedes. However, in time Britain controlled all of the colonies, and most American colonists adopted the British way of life. The growth of the colonies was not good for Native Americans. Many of them died of smallpox, a disease brought to America by the Europeans. The ones who lived lost their lands to the colonists.