United States Independence From Britain

2 Pages 623 Words

After the United States declared its Independence from Britain on July 4, 1776, the long process of building the state began. This era started with the individual state constitutions, which blended the traditions of British and colonial rule with the new, more radical republicanism that infused the nation during the Revolutionary War. State governments established, Americans realized the need for a national government to take on responsibility for diplomatic representation and military control. The first attempt at national government was laid out in the Articles of Confederation. The Articles established a loose federation of states that all essentially acted as individual republics; the balance of power lay heavily in the states favor and the national government was far too weak to perform even its basic duties.

During the mid 1780s, the government under the Articles of Confederation proved unable to successfully levy and collect taxes, and unable to carry out the basic requirements of diplomacy. The nation was in danger of breaking apart. After Shays' Rebellion alerted many Americans to the weakness of the current national government, political leaders decided to alter the framework of government under which the United States operated.

The Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia and determined that it was in the nation's best interest to create an entirely new framework of government. For nearly four months, the delegates at the convention deliberated on how best to accomplish this rebuilding effort. The Constitution, the result of these proceedings, sets out the tripartite system of government that is still in place in the US today. It created a bicameral legislature consisting of the House of Representatives and the Senate, an executive branch headed by the president and staffed by the cabinet, and provided for the establishment of a judicial branch, consisting of a federal-court system headed by the Supreme Court.

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