US History Terra Nova Practice Test

The central idea being tested is how strong the national government was under the Articles of Confederation. They created a very weak central government: Congress could conduct diplomacy, declare war, and handle coinage, but it could not levy taxes or regulate commerce, and there was no separate national executive or judiciary. Major decisions often required unanimous agreement from all states, so the national government had little real power and state governments dominated. This weakness made it hard to pay debts, fund defense, or resolve interstate disputes, fueling the move toward a new framework in the Constitution. It wasn’t a plan for industrialization, it wasn’t a treaty, and it wasn’t a strong central government.