Answer:
The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union were the first constitutional basis of the United States and precursors of the United States Constitution of 1787. Their rules were based essentially on the principle of national sovereignty. After the Continental Congress passed them on November 15, 1777, they were in force after their three-year ratification from 1781 to 1789.
The international legal regulations of the Articles of Confederation rested on the principle of the complete sovereignty of the individual states. Thus, they effectively established an American confederation, which, however, had some structural deficiencies and quickly failed.
From the beginning of the Confederation, its legislature, the Continental Congress, was not allowed to raise its own taxes. Contributions from member states should contribute to the functioning of the Confederation organs, but most member states did not comply with this convention. For this reason, the Confederation was unable to provide its members with military protection against the increasing intervention of the European powers.
In addition, most Member States did not feel obliged to accept arrangements made in the Confederation. Since the latter lacked both enforcement and sanction possibilities, the scope of action of the Confederation was always limited. An important political and economic obstacle and expression of fragmentation, for example, was the increasing demarcation of the member states by protective tariffs, which the Continental Congress was also powerless for, for example, they had the opportunity to withdraw from the Confederation.
To cope with these abuses, the Philadelphia Convention was convened. Actually, it was initially only to discuss the possibility of improvements in the state organization and to find a wording of the articles to reassure the individual states that feared for their power. In the end, however, it presented a completely new draft Constitution, which, in contrast to the Articles of Confederation, demanded a strong federal government as an executive body. This was to take over the powers of the individual states, above all in questions of foreign policy, foreign trade and national defense.
In retrospect, the Articles of Confederation have, historically, nevertheless established the everlasting Union of North American States.