The American victory at Yorktown heralded the beginning of the end for the Revolutionary War, though the official end would not take place for another two years as both sides hammered out what North America would look like going into the future. With this victory, the newly minted United States needed a more formalized federal government, the creation of which of course did not go well whatsoever. By this time, all the states had created governments with a basic similar structure; specifically a legislative branch to make laws, an executive branch headed by a governor to run things, and a judicial branch to ensure laws were enforced; established some type of bill of rights; guaranteeing things such freedom of religion, freedom of speech, trial by jury, and other such things; founded state universities and implemented reformed criminal codes, and expanded voting rights to anyone owning property within the state; that is in the vast majority of cases as long as they were born in American territory, male, white, and 21 years or older, which amounted to only about 6 percent of the total population. However, despite all these similarities, not one of the states wanted to see a strong federal government, believing it was the surest route towards a return to tyranny.
As a result, the thirteen states agreed to the Articles of Confederation in 1781, a watered-down document which basically created a loose alliance of thirteen independent nations. Under this government, each state had a single voting representative, nine of whom were needed to approve any laws or changes, which if such an agreement even occurred, the federal government had no ability to enforce. The individual states set their own laws and trade policies, printed their own money, and did pretty much whatever the hell they wanted. From the beginning they were pretty much at each other’s throats, establishing tariffs on imports from other states and arguing over claims to territories west of the Appalachians, with some states even threatening to declare war on each other. However, all the nutless federal government managed to do in response was to move the capital three times, sell all the U.S. Navy to help pay off debts, and disband almost the entirety of the U.S. Army in order to avoid them staging a coup over unpaid wages. About the only they thing they managed to fix was consolidating all of the claims in the Ohio Country into the Northwest Territory in 1787, though even this was only largely done to benefit the wealthy land speculators who controlled the state legislatures rather than the settlers actually in the territory.
This complete and utter chaos was a big reason the British chose to be generous when they signed the Treaty of Paris in 1783, figuring it would only be a matter of time until the whole endeavor collapsed in on itself. In return for the new states honoring all debts incurred prior to 1775, which was a hefty amount of cheddar, the British handed over all territories west of the Mississippi River, which wasn’t a bad deal for them given they knew they would still be America’s primary trading partner, but now with zero cost overhead. This put both the states and the federal government further into debt, and while the end of the war did end British attacks on American merchant ships, without its own navy, the number of pirate attacks increased dramatically. To help raise money, the majority of states sold off lands seized from Loyalists during the war rather than returning it, sparking the immigration of some 80,000 Loyalists to Quebec, Nova Scotia, and Ontario. The British used this as an excuse to retain troops in many forts along the Great Lakes, from which they sold guns to the various native nations to further destabilize the situation. Spain, uncomfortable with the now close American presence, followed suit with the native nations of the southeast.
If this all sounds pretty bad, don’t worry, it only got worse. Though imports from Britian quickly returned to pre-war levels, exports fell off dramatically due to British mercantilist policies barring them from exporting directly to British colonies, and increased trade to other parts of Europe, New Spain, and even China could only do so much to make up the difference. Since the British traders refused to accept American bank notes, this created a shortage of hard currency, which as only exacerbated by the British government demanding all debts be paid in hard currency as well. As a result, many heavily in debt states raised property taxes and began requiring them to be paid in hard currency. This wasn’t so bad for the well connected merchant class, but it was very difficult for the farmers in the interior, who found themselves having to pay both the merchants and their taxes using hard currency they did not have. As a result, many went bankrupt and began to lose their farms. Eventually, these farmers began to get thoroughly pissed off enough that they began to openly discuss a possible second revolution.
Such was the state of events in 1786, when farmers across the interior of Massachusetts rose up in well-organized mobs, shutting down courts, burning legal documents, chasing out government officials, and seizing control of armories. Though short-lived, what became known as Shay’s Rebellion was a wakeup call, with most states soon after passing laws to better keep the merchants from fucking over the farmers and removing the hard currency requirements for paying taxes. However, it was too little too late in Massachusetts, and the revolt continued to spread until finally a private militia, hired by the merchants, scattered the rebels, with those not arrested fleeing to the Vermont Republic, which despite wanting to be part of the United States, was still its own nation due to New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire all claiming it as their own territory. Though the rebels were later granted a general pardon the entire incident highlighted how close the new United States was to complete disaster.
