The Constitution of the United States took many years of controversy to establish. The final Constitution of the United States established a government based on the system of checks and balances. The Constitution consists of three branches, the legislative branch, the executive branch and the judicial branch. The powers granted to each branch are equal to each other, which helps prevent one branch from taking over. The first Constitution of the United States was called the Articles of Confederation. It was drafted by the Continental Congress in 1776 and approved in 1777, while the American Revolution was underway. This was shortly after the ratification of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and the Articles of Confederation were ratified five years later in 1781, shortly before the Battle of Yorktown, which effectively ended the American War. 'independence. Following this battle was the Treaty of Paris in 1783. The treaty included three main points. First, it declared that the United States would be a sovereign nation. Second, it established boundaries between the United States and the British in the north, stipulating that all land west of the colonies would not be claimed by the British. And third, it stipulated that all prisoners of war must be released on both sides. The Articles of Confederation were very democratic in both form and intent, and they were designed so that the federal government had no real power. This was so because the members of the Constitutional Congress did not want a strong federal government capable of taking control of the people and taking away their rights. The problem, however, was that as a result the central government of the United States was very weak and each state essentially ran itself. The federal government was in debt to an equal number of delegates per state, giving smaller states an advantage. After continued debate, a delegate from Connecticut, Roger Sherman, proposed the Connecticut Compromise (Great Compromise) which ultimately blended the two plans, producing a bicameral legislature with a house based on population (the House of Representatives). and a room on equal delegates for each. State (the Senate). One last thing the delegates agreed on was that there would be a bill of rights to protect the people and that the Constitution would not be ratified without it. Years later, in 1791, the Constitution was ratified and the people of the United States had an official, functioning government. With this new government in place and the freedoms it protects, the people of the United States would become the most powerful economy in the world..