What is the name of the United States first constitution?

1 Answer
Apr 2, 2018

The "first constitution was named the Articles of Confederation.
It wasn't actually a constitution.

Explanation:

The Articles of Confederation was the first written structure of government in the United States.

The Articles were an outline of how the 13 colonies would work together. It was not a constitution because it did not construct a federal government. The Articles as stated in its name was a system for a confederation of independent states,

The Articles worked so poorly that a conference was called on how to improved the Articles. The conference instead of revising the Articles wrote an entire new Constitution that established a federal government.

The Articles were based on the philosophy of Jean Jacque Rousseau. Central to the Articles was the idea that people ( and states of people) were basically good and would work together for the good of the confederation not their individual interest. It turned out that the states did not work for the good of the overall confederation and the Articles did not work

The Constitution was based on the philosophy of Baron Montesquieu that all people ( and groups of people) would be corrupted by power. The Constitution is based on a separation of powers to prevent people and groups of people from having too much power and being corrupted.

The first attempt at forming a governmental structure in America was the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation were replaced by the Constitution of the United States.