Читать книгу The Bill of Rights - Syl Sobel - Страница 7

A Confederation of States

In 1783, thirteen British colonies in North America won their independence from Great Britain. Gaining their independence required a long and costly war, called the Revolutionary War or the War of Independence. But the colonies, which were now called states because they were independent, had more problems ahead of them: How would they survive on their own? Would they continue to do business with England and with other countries in Europe? Would they be safe—from French and Spanish settlements nearby, from Native Americans, from pirates, from each other—without the British army and navy to protect them? What kind of government would they form for their new country?

At first, leaders of the states organized their states into a confederation, which is another word for league. The confederation was not very well organized, however. Each state ran like a separate country with its own rules. The confederation had very few rules to make the states work together. Each state had its own type of money and its own army called a militia. Each militia, however, only protected its own state. The confederation had no power to raise money for an army and a navy to protect all of the states. The leaders called the confederation the “United States,” but the states were not really united yet as one nation.