The Articles of Confederation was the first constitution ratified that the United States operated under. The Articles of Confederation was intentionally made to be weak because the colonies had just broken away from an overpowering government and the point was to make sure the government was weak so that the people had power. However, the Articles proved to be too weak and ineffective, so the Constitution was drawn up and ratified afterwards to deal with certain shortcomings in the Articles of Confederation.