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Article: Confederation
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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CONFEDERATION
CONFEDERATION.
The era 1781
–
1789 takes its name from the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the new United States, ratified by the Second Continental Congress on 1 March 1781. This decade has sometimes been described as an era in which America experienced disastrously weak government under an inept Confederation Congress, an unstable economy that brought the nation to the brink of depression, and a society torn by violence and class conflict; in sum, a decade when the new republic threatened to unravel completely.
On the surface things did look bleak. But overt problems notwithstanding, the new nation made great strides in important ways. While ...