The American Revolution ended two centuries of British rule for most of the North American colonies and created the modern United States of America. The Revolutionary era was both exhilarating and disturbing---a time of progress for some, dislocation for others. In the wake of the Revolution came events as varied as the drafting and ratification of the Constitution of the United States of America. In the 1770s, as the Americans moved toward independence and began to lay the groundwork for state constitution making, they tried, but more hesitantly and nervously, to do the same at the national level. Few were ready for a unified national government. Most distrusted centralized government because they associated it with the failure of the British colonial empire.
In the summer of 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted the resolution authorizing American independence and the framing of the Declaration of Independence and also created the Articles of Confederation. These Articles created a one-house Confederation Congress where each state delegation had one vote. On most matters, a majority vote was needed; on certain key matters, such as treaties, a two-thirds vote was needed; Article 13 required consent by all thirteen states to any proposed amendment of the Articles. At the core of the Articles was the enduring conflict between a perpetual union and state sovereignty, never clearly resolved. The Confederation had no independent executive or judiciary, no federal power of taxation or raising revenue, no federal power to operate directly on individual citizens. The Confederation had to depend on the willingness of the states to comply with congressional requisitions, and the willingness of the state governments to enforce measures to secure American interests. Because the Confederation Congress had no independent taxing power, it depended on contributions made by the several states and on loans negotiated by American diplomats abroad.
