Towards a Perfect Union

Americans achieved their independence as "reluctant revolutionaries." They had resisted and protested against Parliament's punitive taxes and imperial regulations. As a last resort, they took up arms to stop what they believed to be London's calculated usurpation of their liberties. In protest and in arms, they invoked their rights as Englishmen rather than except a new standard of rights and citizenship.

Victory, however, was short lived and its fruits proved to be bittersweet as depression set in after the war had ended. The first independent state governments and the national confederacy created by the Articles of Confederation proved ineffectual in dealing with post war problems. This government,void of executive power and authority, reflected the former colonists' fear of an oppressive and central government, which many had concluded had been the source of their problem. In response Americans deprived their governments of the power to govern effectively and the inability to carry out the will of the people.

The sacrifice of war and pride in victory contributed to a new sense of unity and nationalism. And still, that experience had not yet created a nation. However, the frustrations and disappointments that developed during what has been called the "Critical Period" , 1781-87, did produce a growing recognition of the importance of union to the survival of the republican experiment and a sense of urgency among those who wished to strengthen it.

1777

• The Articles of Confederation are adopted by Congress but ratification is delayed until 1781.

• American defeat General Burgoyne at the Battle of Saratoga

1778

• America and France establish a military alliance.

1780

• Pennsylvania abolishes slavery

1781

• The Articles of Confederation are ratified and become the first from of American government.

• British General Cornwallis surrenders his troops at the Battle of Yorktown,ending the war.

1782

• American and England sign a preliminary peace accord.

1783

• France, Spain, England, and America sign the Treaty of Paris resulting in complete independence for the American colonies.

1785

• Congress creates the Land Ordinance of 1785, a system of land survey and sale.

1786

• Shay's Rebellion takes place in Massachusetts.

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The Articles of Confederation

The Articles of Confederation appeared in the book The Constitutions of Several Independent States of America, published in London,1783.

First two pages of the Articles

The last pages of the Articles bare the signatures of the deligates to the Continental Congress of 1777.

Shay's Rebellion

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