Articles of Confederation

            After the Revolution, the fledgling new nation of America had created the Articles of Confederation. Out of much fear, the Articles tried to stay as far away from a strong federal government as possible. They had tried to make sure the federal government will stay weak in the affairs of the Confederation. Thereby the Articles allowed few concessions to the Congress. The Articles of Confederation had been mostly an ineffective government in the aspects of foreign relations and commerce; however it did provide for an extraordinary system to work with the Northwest Territory.
             The Northwest Territory, acquired after the Revolution, had been a vast area of land that wasn't surveyed nor organized. The Articles set up the Northwest Ordinance to regulate this territory. The Ordinance had shown how the territories would be carved into states. They also abolished slavery and specifically stated that the territories needed a certain population to achieve statehood. The Land Ordinance, another brilliant plan, set up the division of the plots of land in the Northwest Territory after surveying it. It made sure that every township had an area of land for a school. The system was so effective that aspects of it were used even past the destruction of the Articles of Confederation.
             The economic conditions as followed under the Articles were a morass. After years of blockade and other restrictions, the Americans could finally buy all the merchandise they wanted coming from Britain. The British merchants were flooding the market with excess goods. However, the Americans were not profiting from this situation. The uneven trade had let all the gold and silver flow across the Atlantic. The economy was badly suffering as the debt was piling up. One of the ways to control this overflow is a tariff on the British imports. This would lower the possibility for the people to buy. Unfortunately, the Congress had not the ability to tax (the only revenue they had had been from donation and the selling of the Northwest Territory).