Therefore, the Annapolis Convention suggested that some states were beginning to consider the possibility of amending the Articles of Confederation in order to strengthen some of the document's obvious weaknesses. However, the reasons for the articles' weaknesses (especially the fact that each state was jealous of its own power and refused to make concessions to facilitate the functioning of the national government) also explained why a solution was so difficult to achieve. All of this changed, however, with Shays's Rebellion of 1786. Shays's Rebellion grew out of a problem that was common throughout the states in the 1780s. The states owed a considerable amount of money for the debts that accrued during the Revolutionary War. Although some of this debt was owed to wealthy Americans, much was owed to foreigners and foreign governments. If the states wanted to begin paying on these foreign debts, which they needed to...