Few events in North American history were more consequential than the writing of the U.S. Constitution, which took place at a convention held in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787. The thirteen onetime colonies had proclaimed high ideals when they declared their independence from Great Britain in 1776, but the treaty of peace with England was not signed until 1783, and the government of the Articles of Confederation that the states had adopted in the interim had proved to be inadequate. In the context of an ongoing war, it was difficult to make progress on forming a new government; meanwhile, the lack of an executive and the difficulty in raising money hampered the war effort. The confederation’s unicameral congress, in which states were equally represented, had limited powers and could not act directly on individual citizens without going through the states. States taxed one another, undermining one another’s economies, and the national government did not have sufficient power to enforce treaties or pay its debts to foreign governments who had helped finance the Revolution.