Week 8 Discussion

MAKING A COUNTRY After the Revolutionary War

• Articles of Confederation (1781): • “Firm league of friendship”

between states.

• Confederation Congress had no right to tax or regulate trade

• United States in Congress Assembled

• State constitutions: • Virginia first to draft and pass

a republican constitution.

A New Government

DIFFICULTIES AFTER THE WAR

Military threats to power

Soldiers and officers, demanded what had been promised by the Constitutional Congress.

Troops refused to disband until they received the half pay for life offered by the congress.

They get full pay for five years

Some officers got together and created the Society of the Cincinnati

Elitist society, highly exclusive

DIFFICULTIES AFTER THE WAR

Economic situation was extremely difficult:

War had drained resources.

Lack of trade with England cut profits in the new United States.

State governments pass laws to tax people so they can pay off debts.

DIFFICULTIES AFTER THE WAR

By 1785, the large gap between wealthy and poor begins to compromise social order and numerous protests and violent encounters occurred.

Shays’s Rebellion (1786)

Massachusetts

Led by Army officer Daniel Shays.

Looked to close down courts and impede government.

By 1787, they become more militant and have violent confrontations.

They are defeated, but it creates great concern for the security of the new nation

LAND DISPUTES

Spain and U.S. claim different boundary lines for Florida, and Spain opposes U.S. access to Mississippi.

Natives struggle to resist U.S. expansion and land speculators

Nations like the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek found themselves caught between Spanish and U.S. claims.

Northern natives encounter fierce push from settlers that displaces many groups of the Iroquois.

They move further west, to the Ohio Valley, and develop a strong, unified opposition.

Joseph Brant (1743-1807)