EFFECTIVENESS OF THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION The Articles of Confederation were incapable of providing the United States with an effective form of government. The Articles of Confederation presided weakly over the government as it allowed little or no power to tax, control trade, and branches of government were missing. In addition to this, the thirteen states acted as separate nations and the national government had little control over them. As seen in Document C, Congress had so little money that it couldn’t afford to pay the army their bonuses. The army, of course, was discontented in this lack of action and th