<P> The Articles of Confederation was written in 1776, and came into effect in 1781 . This established a weak central government, with only a unicameral body, in which each state was equally represented and each had a veto over most actions . There was no executive or judicial branch . This congress was given limited authority over foreign affairs and military matters, but not to collect taxes, regulate interstate commerce, or enforce laws . This system of government did not work well, with economic fights among the states, and an inability to suppress rebellion or guarantee the national defense . </P> <P> Annapolis became the temporary capital of the United States after the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 . Congress was in session in the state house from November 26, 1783, to June 3, 1784, and it was in Annapolis on December 23, 1783, that General Washington resigned his commission as commander - in - chief of the Continental Army . </P> <P> For the 1783 Congress, the Governor of Maryland commissioned, John Shaw, a local cabinet maker, to create an American flag . The flag is slightly different from other designs of the time . The blue field extends over the entire height of the hoist . Shaw created two versions of the flag: one which started with a red stripe and another that started with a white one . </P> <P> In 1787, a convention, to which delegates from all the states of the Union were invited, was called to meet in Annapolis to consider measures for the better regulation of commerce; but delegates came from only five states (New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Jersey, and Delaware), and the convention, known afterward as the "Annapolis Convention", without proceeding to the business for which it had met, passed a resolution calling for another convention to meet at Philadelphia in the following year to amend the Articles of Confederation . The Philadelphia convention drafted and approved the Constitution of the United States, which is still in force . </P>

When did the republicans gain control of congress