American rebels won their independence from Great Britain, but in many ways the war heightened the existing divisions within American society. Such divisions, magnified by the strain of waging a long military conflict, immediately caused difficulties within the new republic. In addition to older tensions over racial, ethnic, sectional, and religious diversity, a new set of difficulties arose from the challenges of independent nationhood and crafting a workable republican government. Ultimately, these difficulties doomed the Articles of Confederation and convinced many, although not all, political leaders of the necessity of creating a new, more powerful federal government. The result of that decision, after much debate and political conflict, was the United States Constitution.