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In the US, we love our constitution.

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But it wasn't always this way.

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Before the Constitution and government we have today,

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we had a sort of prototype constitution called the Articles of Confederation,

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which created a nation of independent states

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only loosely linked together by a single Congress.

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The Founding Fathers intentionally designed a nation with a very weak central government.

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There was no judicial branch,

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no executive branch,

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so there was no president.

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Which, when you think about it,

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it makes a lot of sense.

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The colonists had just been through a really bad breakup with the British king, and

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they're not about to get back together with a government who looked just like their ex.

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We've all made that mistake before.

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You go and date a girl

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like the last girl you dated,

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you're going to get hurt. Don't do this to yourself!

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The Congress, which was just a single chamber with a delegate from every state,

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did have some power,

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like the authority to make treaties and alliances,

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maintain an army, and coin money.

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But they couldn't levy the taxes to pay for those things.

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In fact, under the Articles of Confederation,

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paying federal taxes was voluntary for the states, who of course were like,

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"No thanks, we're good."

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The US had borrowed money from European investors and

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nations to pay for the Revolutionary War,

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but with no power to tax,

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the United States couldn't pay back any of those debts,

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creating a huge economic disaster by 1787.

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With no funds and limited power,

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the central government couldn't do much to protect peace at home.

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This became abundantly clear during Shays's Rebellion in 1786,

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when farmers in Massachusetts violently protested against the state's high taxes.

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So if the Articles of Confederation weren't working,

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why didn't they just make changes to it?

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Well, it was practically impossible.

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Amendments to the Articles needed unanimous consent, and

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the delegates from the thirteen states had more opinions than a YouTube comment section.

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By the way, you should comment on this video right now,

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say something nice about it.

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This weak Congress and a broke,

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ineffective federal government eventually

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proved to be too much of a burden on the United States.

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Because when thirteen different state governments held all the power,

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nothing was getting accomplished.

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The Founding Fathers found this out the hard way.

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They went back to the drawing board,

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drafting a new and improved Constitution,

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which is still the law of our land today.