Although the Articles of Confederation was replaced by the constitution because of all of the weaknesses, but there were also a significant amount of achievements. The system of federalism was implemented in the constitution to fix the weaknesses. There were also important compromises that took place in Philadelphia that came from the constitutional convention. The Articles of Confederation was the first framework of the government for the United States. One of the main weaknesses was that it had a weak central government. There were many things that congress weren't allowed to do. One of these things being that they weren't allowed to raise an army, but they needed to request that individual states contributed troops. This lead to the Shay's Rebellion. During this time, there were many farmers who were in debt. Massachusetts didn't want to have paper money to help with the people in debt. The people who were part of Shay's Rebellion were told that they were acting in spirit of the revolution. From this, Americans went into a state of anarchy, confusion and slavery.
A second weakness of the Articles of Confederation was that congress didn't have power over interstate commerce but they were allowed to create uniform tariffs. Tariffs were placed on imported goods. The central government had power to levy taxes but the southern states opposed it. Northern states were in favor of what the central government wanted to do. They wanted them to establish uniform regulations on all commerce with foreign nations. Congress was eventually granted power to levy taxes on imports but not on exports. There were two main achievements that came from the Articles of Confederation. One achievement was the negotiation of The Treaty of Paris. The Treaty of Paris led to the United States being the first independent nation. After the Articles of Confederation were established, the American Revolution was brought to an end and states were kept united.
