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The Articles of Confederation

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1. Why were Americans so afraid of a strong national government? In the wake of the war, and given that fear, how was the Articles of Confederation government constructed? How was it successful? In what ways did it fail?
2. How did the Bill of Rights help calm the fears of those who were reluctant to ratify the Constitution?

200 original words each please as I need a general understanding in easy to understand terms.

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Aspects of the The Articles of Confederation and government are debated.

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1. Why were Americans so afraid of a strong national government? In the wake of the war, and given that fear, how was the Articles of Confederation government constructed? How was it successful? In what ways did it fail?

Americans were afraid because they remembered their colonial heritage, including the "No taxation without representation!" clause that impacted them severely. Based on this and other events from the Colonial era, Americans demanded that only the individual states could levy taxes. Americans had just won independence from Britain, so many Americans feared that creating a strong centralized federal government with too much authority would have the same consequences as in the Colonial era. They feared that the power over the states would only replace King George III with another tyrant. The Americans had a different vision; Congress as a supervisory body that allowed the states the freedom to make their own decisions. The early United States was considered a confederation, with the states being nearly independent. Americans thought that this independence would result in unity to combat Britain.

However, it failed, because this system proved to be a completely ...

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