Final answer:
Under the Articles of Confederation, disputes between states would need to be resolved by the states themselves, as there was no national judiciary or executive branch. The U.S. Constitution later established the Supreme Court and gave it the authority to settle disputes between states.
Step-by-step explanation:
Under the Articles of Confederation, there was no provision for a national judiciary or an executive branch to mediate disputes between states. Consequently, disagreements between states would need to be resolved by the states themselves. It was only after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution that the Supreme Court was established as the highest federal court in the nation with the authority to settle disputes between states, operating primarily as an appeals court. However, most of the development of the judicial system and the creation of lower courts were placed in the hands of Congress.
Before the Constitution, the state governments held more power than the national government, reflecting the preference to concentrate power within the states rather than a central government. The allocation of powers changed with the Constitution, which conferred more authority to the federal government, introducing two new branches of government - the executive branch headed by the president and the judicial branch headed by the Supreme Court.
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