How the Hell did the U.S. Survive the First Few Years of Independence?

In this episode, John discusses the many challenges the United States faced as it emerged victorious from the Revolutionary War and sought to solidify its standing as an independent republic. John talks about the infamous Newburgh Conspiracy among a number of Continental Army officers, why it emerged and how George Washington was narrowly able to stop it from happening. John lists a number of the very serious difficulties the United States encountered as it tried to gain its footing and why those challenges were made more difficult under the first form of government, the Articles of Confederation.Finally, John explains the structure of the Articles of Confederation government. He gives a detailed description of how the government operated, why it was made to operate in this fashion and what became the glaring weaknesses of it that forced many of the founding fathers to call for major reforms very shortly after the the Revolutionary War had ended.