The Littlest Government

Questions

1. When did the United States formally gain independence from Great Britain?
2. What was the prevailing view of American Revolutionaries toward powerful centralized governments?
3. What were the Articles of Confederation?
4. The Articles of Confederation created a government that had only one branch. What was it?
5. What crucial power did Congress NOT have under the Articles of Confederation?

Answers

1. 1783.
2. Americans, embittered by their experiences dealing with King George III and the powerful British Parliament in London, mostly came to see a strong centralized government as a dangerous threat to individual liberty.
3. The first written constitution of the United States, which created a loosely organized system of national government that lasted from 1781 through 1787, when the Constitution we still use today was drafted.
4. Congress
5. The power to levy taxes.