It was weak, essentially nonexistent. Under the Articles of Confederation, the central government had to ask the states for troops in order to create an army. Shays' Rebellion was a violent farmers' rebellion that showed just how weak the central government was under the Articles because it was unable to control the chaos. After the rebellion, the framers realized that they needed to revise the Articles of Confederation and give the federal government more power-- a constitutional convention was held and the US Constitution was created.
