A NEW NATION
8
FORMING T HE NEW NATION
T heT reatyofParis hadrecog nizedthe U nited States
asan in d epe nd entnation.B'Jtitwasnotonenat i o n
asItistoday .In 1783m o stAmericansfeltmore
lo yalt y totheir ownstatet ha ntot henewU nited
States. Theysawthemsel ves first asVirginiansor
NewYorkers rather than as Americans.
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Eachind i v id u al Americanst at ehad itsOWII
governmentandbehavedvcrymuch like an
independ ent cou n try.Itmad e itsown law s an d its
o w n decisio nsabout ho wtoHillits affairs.T hefirs t
bigproblemthat facedth e newU nitedStatesw as
h o wtojointogether thesesometi mesquarrels o m e
littlecountriesintoone uni ted nation.
Durin g th e War of Independencethe stareshad
ag reedto w or kto geth er ina nati on al C ongr essto
w hi ch eachstatesentrcprcseneauves.T he agree m en t
that setu p thi s piau forthesta testo cooperatewith
o neanotherw ascalledtheAnicksofConfede ratio n.
Ithadbeg uutoo peratein 1781.
U u der theArticleso f C on fedcrario n the cen tral
governmento f theUnitedStaresw as\'er y weak.h
wasg ivencert ain rig ht s. but ithadnopowerto make
thoseri ghtseffect ive.C o n gresscouldvote toset upa
UnitedStatesarmyandnavy,butit cou ld on ly
obtainsoldiersand sailorsb y askingth e statesfo r
them .Itcould voteto spendm on ey .butir had no
powerto co llecttaxesto raise the m o m' y. T his
cause d se rio usp roblems.When.fo r example,
Con gressneed edmoney to payd ebt sowed to
Fran ce, somestatesrefu se d topay.
Whenth eWaro f I ndepend encewasover. individual
statesbegan to behavemore and mo re like
independent natio ns. Some se t up tax bar rier sagainst
others.N ew York placed heavyi m portduties on
firewoodimpo rtedfromth e neighbo ringsta teof
Conn ecti cut andonch ickensandeggs fro mano t her
neigh bo r. N ewJ erse y .Insomeplace s sta teseven
began fig htingone anot h erto decid etheo w ne rship
ofp art icular piecesoffronti erland.
T heweak nessofitsgovernmentm ade it di fficultfo r
thenewU n itedStatestowinth e res pe cto r th e help
offoreignnatio ns.TheBriti sh feltthatth e A m eri can
go vern m en twassoweakth at it wasno twort h
dealing w it h. G eo rgeIIIw ass urerhar t h e A mericans
wou ldsoonbebeggingtorej o intheBritis h E m p ire.