Explain why the weaknesses of the articles led to a critical period for the government in the 1780s

The government set into being by the Articles was far from ideal. The government gave legitimacy to a Continental Congress which could conduct business with Native Americans, Europe, etc. and run the military during the end of the Revolutionary War and the diplomatic issues which came from it. The government was founded with a weak central authority, the major executive influence coming from the governors of each new state and their legislatures. The executive branch's weaknesses would become obvious, though, forcing the need for a new form of government in the states.

The weaknesses of the Articles included the central authority's lack of ability to raise taxes or revenues for nation-wide projects, a lack of ability to invest in the Old World economically and diplomatically, weak regulations over inter-state commerce leading to inter-state border disputes, near complete lack of a formal court system to oversee justice, and an absence of an executive figure (i. e. the President under the Constitution) which made nearly every matter more difficult as state governors jousted for power over the central authority and foreign policy was a joke without a formal and powerful head of state.