Under the Articles of Confederation, the United States created a government that was so weak it struggled to function, which is why it was eventually replaced by the Constitution. Its main problems were lack of power, lack of enforcement, and decision‑making rules that made change almost impossible.

Big-picture weakness

The core flaw was a very weak national government that depended on the goodwill of the states instead of having real authority. It looked more like a loose alliance of 13 independent countries than a single nation.

Specific weaknesses

  1. No power to tax
    • Congress could only request money from states and could not force them to pay.
 * As a result, the national government often lacked funds to pay soldiers, pay debts, or run basic operations.
  1. No control over commerce
    • Congress could not regulate trade between states or with foreign nations.
 * Each state could set its own tariffs and make its own trade deals, which caused economic conflict and chaos.
  1. No executive branch
    • There was no national president or executive to enforce laws passed by Congress.
 * This meant that even when Congress agreed on something, there was no central authority to make states or individuals obey.
  1. No national court system
    • The Articles created no national judiciary to interpret laws or settle disputes between states or between citizens of different states.
 * Conflicts had to be handled state by state, which made legal outcomes inconsistent and often unresolved.
  1. One-state, one-vote legislature
    • Congress was unicameral (only one house), and each state, large or small, had exactly one vote.
 * This angered larger states and made it hard to pass measures that reflected population differences.
  1. Super‑majorities and unanimous consent
    • Important laws required approval from 9 of 13 states, and amendments to the Articles had to be unanimous.
 * A single state could block changes, making reform almost impossible even when most states agreed it was needed.
  1. Weak military power
    • Congress could not draft soldiers or maintain a standing army or navy; it had to ask states to supply troops.
 * This left the country vulnerable to external threats and internal unrest, as seen in episodes like post‑war uprisings.
  1. Trouble with foreign policy
    • Congress could negotiate treaties but depended on states to honor them and had no power to enforce compliance.
 * Foreign nations doubted American reliability because the central government could not ensure unified action.

How these weaknesses played out

  • Economic problems: Competing state currencies, internal tariffs, and unpaid debts hurt trade and confidence in the new nation.
  • Political frustration: Congress “commanded little respect” and often could not act at all because states prioritized their own power.
  • Push for change: The accumulation of these failures led key leaders to call a convention that ultimately wrote the U.S. Constitution.

In short, the Articles of Confederation failed not because Americans didn’t want freedom, but because they made the national government too weak to solve common problems.

TL;DR: The Articles’ weaknesses—no taxing power, no control of commerce, no executive, no courts, equal voting for all states, and impossible amendment rules—made the central government ineffective and pushed the country toward adopting the stronger U.S. Constitution.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.