The first government of the United States was a confederation, which is very different from what we know today! The Articles of Confederation provided the legal basis for the new confederation. But the confederation didn't last long - issues popped up almost immediately, which resulted in a switch to a federation under the Constitution. We'll look at what a confederation is, some examples, and why it didn't work for the United States.
Confederation Definition
A confederation is a type of government made up of a league of independent nations or states. Each state is independent and has its own authority and autonomy, but they come together for some sort of shared government. Usually, states form a confederation to help maintain peace between the states, provide mutual defence, or address a crisis.
A confederation is created when independent states come together to form some sort of shared government. It maintains the maximum authority for the individual states and minimal authority for the shared government.
Confederation Government
The governmental system of a confederation usually includes representatives from each state who serve in a common or central legislature. The central government usually works together to address issues that affect all of the members of the confederation, such as maintaining peace treaties, organizing mutual defence, proposing laws, and implementing policies that impact the confederation. But the central government is usually pretty weak and tries not to interfere in the states' governments.
Each state usually has its own independent government, which has much more power than the central government. For example, a nation in a confederation might have its own executive and legislative branch to create policies related to finances, social welfare, and infrastructure. But they come together with the other members of the confederation to address issues that impact all of them like economics, commerce, and security.
We can see some of the characteristics of a confederation in the European Union (EU). Each country runs its own separate government, but as members of the European Union, they also come together to make important decisions together. For example, France has its own president and parliament, but it also sends representatives to the European Union.
The EU was formed in order to create more peace between the European countries following World War II. Today, the European Union provides a central authority for things like interstate commerce, the European economy, and political stability.
This map shows the countries that are part of the European Union as of 2020. Oguzkaan76, CC-BY-SA-4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Confederation vs. Federation
One major hallmark of a confederation is that the central governing body gets its power from the individual members. It doesn't necessarily have power on its own, nor can it coerce or force individual states to do things. So, the central government is weak while the state governments are strong.
A federation is usually the opposite - the central (or federal) government is strong while the state governments are relatively weak. The federal government maintains authority and can pass it back to the states as needed. States have power in some areas related to their own borders, but the laws and regulations passed by the federal government trump state laws and regulations.
In a federation, the main authority is the central (federal) government. State governments regulate their own borders, but the ultimate authority is the federal government.
Today, the United States is an example of a federation. The Constitution gave the federal government authority over the whole country, while state governments have authority over their own borders.
The issue of state rights vs. the federal government didn't go away after the passage of the Constitution. During the Civil War, the Southern States wanted to separate from the United States and create their own country called the Confederate States of America (also called the Confederacy). Because the federal government was trying to end slavery, they felt that maintaining states' rights through a confederacy would make it easier for them to continue the practice of slavery. That's why the two armies were called the Confederate Army and the Union Army.
A bank note issued by the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. Source: Wikimedia Commons PD-US
Confederation in Early American History
So why did the colonies first want to create a confederation if it didn't end up working out? To understand, we have to go all the way back to the beginning of colonization in the 16th and 17th centuries. Each colony had its own charter from the king or queen. Each colony, from Virginia to Massachusetts, was settled separately, so they all had their own form of government before they came together for the Revolutionary War. The identity as separate colonies rather than a unified land carried through to the Articles of Confederation.
Each colony had its own identity and charter from England. Source: Wikimedia Commons CC-PD-Mark
When the colonies did come together for the Revolutionary War, they were united by a common enemy in England rather than a common identity. When it came time to talk about creating a new country, all of the states wanted to keep the same power and sovereignty that they had before the war.
Sovereignty is the right and authority of a nation or state to govern itself.
Also, the colonists were very cautious about a strong central government because they associated it with the English monarchy and abusive taxes that caused the Revolution in the first place. They didn't want to be forced to pay taxes to a distant central government anymore.
All of this came together and influenced the new country to form a confederation under the Articles of Confederation. This way, each state could maintain its sovereignty while creating a central government that would help win the war for independence.
Articles of Confederation
The first framework for the US government (even before the Constitution) was the Articles of Confederation. Benjamin Franklin was one of the first framers to propose a confederation between the states. He proposed the Albany Plan to join the states together under a common government while maintaining each state's sovereignty.
The Iroquois Confederacy
Franklin didn't come up with the idea for a confederation all on his own - he learned about the benefits of a confederation from the indigenous tribes in New York. The Iroquois Confederacy joined five tribes together: the Onandaga, Oneida, Mohawk, Seneca, and Cayuga. He brought the principles of the Iroquois Confederacy to Congress when he proposed the Albany Plan.
The creation of the Iroquois Confederacy has been passed down for generations in the tribe's oral history.
Before the Iroquois Confederacy, the five tribes lived in war. The wars brought nothing but pain and suffering. Eventually, the tribes came together to form a peace treaty called the "Great Law of Peace." They came together to create a new kind of agreement that preserved each tribe's identity and sovereignty while submitting some power to the central council in order to create peace. The tribes sent representatives to a central council to propose ideas and agree on policies that impacted all of them. The confederacy was very successful in ending the wars and helped create unity and harmony among the five tribes for generations.
The founders of the Iroquois Confederacy created this flag to symbolize the five tribes coming together in peace. Source: Wikimedia Commons PD-Self
Summary of the Articles of Confederation
True to the colonies' wishes, the Articles of Confederation created a system where the states maintained pretty much the same amount of power as they did before the creation of the new country.
- Under the Articles of Confederation, the federal government could:
- Establish Congress
- Declare wars
- Engage in foreign diplomacy
- The federal government could not:
- Levy taxes or require states to provide funding
- Regulate commerce within states
Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress helped resolve some disputes over whether certain states would be allowed to expand westward and take slavery with them. They also successfully won the Revolutionary War. Unfortunately, the successes stopped there.
Confederation in the Constitution
The confederation sounded like a great idea for maintaining state sovereignty and creating a new country at the same time. But the Articles weren't strong enough to unite the states or keep everyone on the same page.
The federal government didn't have any money and the states refused to pay up. Some soldiers who fought in the war still hadn't been paid. The states also bickered over border disputes and slavery.
Finally, in 1787, Congress realized that it needed to address the issues in the Articles of Confederation. During the Constitutional Convention, the delegates scrapped the idea of a confederation of the states in favour of a federation with a strong central government that would unite the country. The new Constitution gave the federal government some important new powers to help hold the country together.
- The Constitution gave the federal government new strength through:
- The creation of the Executive Branch and the Presidency
- The creation of the Judicial Branch and the Supreme Court
- The creation of the bicameral system in Congress
- The authority to levy taxes
- Supremacy over states (meaning that the federal laws trumped state laws)
Why didn't a confederacy work for the United States?
A confederacy can work really well, especially when the goal is to prevent fighting among the various states! We can see some important successes in the European Union and the Iroquois Confederacy. Both examples show states with a history of war come together under a confederation with the goal of peace.
The United States had a different goal - they weren't forming a confederacy because of fighting among themselves, but rather to fight against England. When the country did gain independence, the goal of coming together to fight England wasn't strong enough to keep the country together. The states had a long history of individual identities and governing structures, so they didn't want to voluntarily provide funding or power to the central government. They ultimately needed to create a stronger federal government to provide a central identity and unifying force.
Confederation - Key takeaways
- A confederation is when individual nations or states come together to form a central government. Each individual state maintains its sovereignty, but the confederacy provides important unity in areas like peace treaties and security.
- The new nation of the United States of America liked the idea of a confederacy because each state already had its own government and identity.
- The Articles of Confederation outlined the framework for the confederacy.
- A confederation wasn't strong enough to keep the new country together, which led to the shift to a federation under the Constitution.
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