Oklahoma Academic Standard 3. The student will examine the foundations of the American nation established during the Revolutionary Era.

Objective 5.3.3  Explain the importance of the Articles of Confederation as the first American national system of  government under which the colonies waged a war in order to gain independence.

In a Nutshell

Students should understand the many roles that the Articles of Confederation played as the first national system of government for the colonies during and immediately after the Revolutionary War. Students should examine the strengths of the Articles of Confederation, including its successful funding and management of the war effort, as well as developing foreign alliances. Students should also consider the degree in which the Iroquois Confederacy, consisting of the Six Nations (Oneida, Onodaga, Cayuga, Mohawk, Seneca, and Tuscarora) influenced early colonial governments. Some historians point to the Indian confederacy as influential in the design and structure of the American confederacy.

Teacher Action 

Student Action 

• Guide students in examining the purposes of government and laws, as stated in the Articles of Confederation. 

• Provide frequent opportunities for students to explain multiple causes and effects of events and developments of the past.

•  Assist students to identify democratic principles and describe examples of civic virtues and democratic principles at work in state and national settings.

• Provide opportunities for students to explain how culture, political, and economic actions can influence the ways and reasons for people to cooperate. 

• Explain the challenges people have faced and the strategies used to address national historical problems. 

• Engage in collaborative discussions about appropriate topics and text, expressing ideas clearly to others, regarding the effectiveness of the Articles of Confederation during the war for independence. 

• Explain the challenges people have faced and the strategies used to address a local, regional, or national historical problems.

• Compare the structure, responsibilities, and powers exercised by the Iroquois Confederacy to early colonial efforts to unite. 

Key Concepts 

Misconceptions 

• union of the thirteen American colonies 

• funding Continental Army, coordinating war effort, French Alliance

• Northwest Ordinance, organization and sale of western lands

• alliance, league, confederation, common good, welfare

• clan system, political and cultural union

• Iroquois Confederacy, Haudenosaunee (“People of the Longhouse”), "Six Nations", The Great Peacemaker 

• Most students have limited prior knowledge of the Articles of Confederations as the colonists’ first attempt at self-government, including its successes during the course of the Revolutionary War.

• Many students will have no prior understandings of a confederate form of government, including its advantages and disadvantages.

• Most students may have little or nor prior knowledge of the influence of early American Indian forms of representative governments.

Instructional Resources