Ch.8, Sec.1 – The Confederation Era Moving West Moving West - Daniel Boone helped to build the Wilderness Road, which allowed settlers to move west through.

Ch.8, Sec.1 – The Confederation Era

Moving West

- Daniel Boone helped to build the Wilderness Road, which allowed settlers to move west through Kentucky

- over 100,000 Americans moved West by early 1790s

Ch.8, Sec.1 – The Confederation Era

New State Governments

- state governments focused on making their systems more democratic with separate branches, which would prevent the federal government from gaining too much power

- although not all states had a bill of rights, they all had a republican form of government

- in a republic, the people choose representatives to govern them

Ch.8, Sec.1 – The Confederation Era

The Articles of Confederation

- in 1776, Continental Congress began to develop a plan for a national government

- their final plan was the Articles of Confederation, which gave the states more power than the federal government

- each state had only one vote in Congress but the national government had the power to wage war, make peace, sign treaties, & issue money

Ch.8, Sec.1 – The Confederation Era

- the most important powers were left to the states: enforce national laws, set taxes, & control lands west of the Appalachian Mountains

- states without access to the western lands were not willing to sign the Articles

- they wouldn’t be able to pay off their debts from the war as easily as the states that could sell western lands

- by 1781, all states gave up their land claims & signed the Articles of Confederation

Ch.8, Sec.1 – The Confederation EraThe Northwest Ordinance

- the most pressing question after the war was what to do about the western lands

- the Land Ordinance of 1785 called for surveyors to stake out six-mile square plots, called townships, in these lands

- these lands came to be known as the Northwest Territory which were Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan (see pgs. 210-211 for more info.)

Ch.8, Sec.1 – The Confederation Era

- the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 allowed territories to apply for statehood if they had 60,000 people

- these territories had freedom of religion, trial by jury, slavery was outlawed, and rivers were allowed to be used for trade

- the ordinance set the precedent for how territories were added as states to the country

Ch.8, Sec.1 – The Confederation Era

Weaknesses of the Articles

- debt was a big problem for Congress and thousands of soldiers were owed a lot of $

- Congress relied on the states to send money, but they sent very little

- after the Revolutionary War, most states were struggling economically

Ch.8, Sec.1 – The Confederation Era

Shays’ Rebellion

- many people were in high debt because of taxes, which were in excess of $200 a year

- many in Massachusetts were put into jail because they could not pay off their debts

- farmers asked the legislature for debt relief, but they refused

- 1,500 men, led by war veteran Daniel Shays, rebelled in January of 1787

Ch.8, Sec.1 – The Confederation Era

- Shays and his men marched on a federal arsenal in central Massachusetts, but were quickly defeated by 900 soldiers

- the uprising came to be known as Shays’ Rebellion and gained the sympathy of many political leaders

- leaders began thinking a stronger national government could solve the nation’s ills from the American Revolution

Ch.8, Sec.1 – The Confederation Era

Ch.8, Sec.1 – The Confederation Era