• Explain how the lessons Americans learned about government during the independence movement shaped their first national government, the Articles of Confederation.

• Balance the achievements of the Confederation against its weaknesses in assessing its overall success, and explain calls for a stronger central government.

• Characterize the Nationalists’ hopes for a new government, and describe the strategies they adopted to win support for a new constitution.

• Chart the emergence of a stronger central government as the delegates to the Philadelphia Convention debated federal power, representation, balanced government, and rights.

•Represent the arguments of Federalists and Antifederalists during the debate over ratification of the Constitution, and explain the result.

1777 Congress approves John Dickinson’s draft of the Articles of Confederation.

1777–81 The thirteen states take four years to ratify the Articles.

1785 The Northwest Ordinance of 1785 provides for the survey and sale of western land.

1786 Nationalists advocate a stronger central government at the Annapolis Convention.

1786–87 Shays’s Rebellion in Massachusetts dramatizes weaknesses of the Confederation.

1787 The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 provides government and eventual statehood for western territories.

The Philadelphia Convention produces a new Constitution.

1787–88 The Constitution takes effect after ratification by three-fourths (nine) of the states.