Articles of Confederation

[ahr-ti-kuhlz uhv kuhn-fed-uh-rey-shuhn]

noun

(used with a plural verb)

1. the first constitution of the 13 American states, adopted in 1781 and replaced in 1789 by the Constitution of the United States.

Articles of Confederation

plural noun

1. the agreement made by the original 13 states in 1777 establishing a confederacy to be known as the United States of America; replaced by the Constitution of 1788

Articles of Confederation

1. An agreement among the thirteen original states, approved in 1781, that provided a loose federal government before the present Constitution went into effect in 1789. There was no chief executive or judiciary, and the legislature of the Confederation had no authority to collect taxes.

Example Sentences

Over the next several years, these new states finalized a unifying treaty called the Articles of Confederation.

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Yet while the drafters of the Constitution were suspicious of military power, they also understood that the national government created by the Articles of Confederation was too weak and couldn’t respond effectively to a crisis.

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Washington was asked by his beloved Virginia to take part in a convention charged with revising the Articles of Confederation, the first American constitution.

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It’s worth noting that the Articles of Confederation were explicitly perpetual — no state could leave on its own.

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They had failures; their first effort, the Articles of Confederation, collapsed.

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