<P> It was an era of constitution writing--most states were busy at the task--and leaders felt the new nation must have a written constitution, even though other nations did not . During the war, Congress exercised an unprecedented level of political, diplomatic, military and economic authority . It adopted trade restrictions, established and maintained an army, issued fiat money, created a military code and negotiated with foreign governments . </P> <P> To transform themselves from outlaws into a legitimate nation, the colonists needed international recognition for their cause and foreign allies to support it . In early 1776, Thomas Paine argued in the closing pages of the first edition of Common Sense that the "custom of nations" demanded a formal declaration of American independence if any European power were to mediate a peace between the Americans and Great Britain . The monarchies of France and Spain in particular could not be expected to aid those they considered rebels against another legitimate monarch . Foreign courts needed to have American grievances laid before them persuasively in a "manifesto" which could also reassure them that the Americans would be reliable trading partners . Without such a declaration, Paine concluded, "(t) he custom of all courts is against us, and will be so, until, by an independence, we take rank with other nations ." </P> <P> Beyond improving their existing association, the records of the Second Continental Congress show that the need for a declaration of independence was intimately linked with the demands of international relations . On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee introduced a resolution before the Continental Congress declaring the colonies independent; at the same time he also urged Congress to resolve "to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances" and to prepare a plan of confederation for the newly independent states . Congress then created three overlapping committees to draft the Declaration, a Model Treaty, and the Articles of Confederation . The Declaration announced the states' entry into the international system; the model treaty was designed to establish amity and commerce with other states; and the Articles of Confederation, which established "a firm league" among the thirteen free and independent states, constituted an international agreement to set up central institutions for the conduct of vital domestic and foreign affairs . </P> <P> On June 12, 1776, a day after appointing a committee to prepare a draft of the Declaration of Independence, the Second Continental Congress resolved to appoint a committee of 13 to prepare a draft of a constitution for a union of the states . The committee met repeatedly, and chairman John Dickinson presented their results to the Congress on July 12, 1776 . There were long debates on such issues as sovereignty, the exact powers to be given the confederate government, whether to have a judiciary, and voting procedures . The final draft of the Articles was prepared in the summer of 1777 and the Second Continental Congress approved them for ratification by the individual states on November 15, 1777, after a year of debate . Consensus was achieved by dividing sovereignty between the states and the central government, with a unicameral legislature that protected the liberty of the individual states . </P>

Did the articles of confederation come before the declaration of independence