What was unusual about the Article of Confederation? What was the struggle at the Constitutional Convention? How was the conflict solved?

—— The Article of Confederation was unusual in many ways. First, it provided for no king. The drafters blamed the troubles with Britain on king George III. So they decided not to have a king but to have a republic. This was revolutionary. Second, while the Articles created a central government in the form of a Congress, the emphasis was still on state powers. Third, the Articles of Confederation was a written constitution for the United States. No important country in the world at that time, including Britain, had a written constitution. At the Constitution Convention the delegates all agreed it was impossible to try to patch up the Articles of Confederation, and decided to ignore them and draw up a new plan of government. Here contradictions emerged between the bigger states and smaller states, between the industrial commercial interests and landed interests, etc. In the end, the conflict was resolved by the “Great Compromise” of July 16, giving each state and equal vote in the Senate but making representation in the House reflect the size of each state’s population.

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