Why didn't the colonists support the idea of a strong central government?

Answer 1

The United States Constitution is akin to an international peace/defense treaty between independent nation-states. The biggest fear of the Founding Fathers in melding The Colonies into single nation was that one person would be able take control of the entire Republic, so they developed a stringent system to avoid take over by any one branch of government or individual.
The original colonists came at different times and for different reasons, and the political cultures that developed around those initial settlements reflected that. When the Colonies began to resist British attempts to reassert authority, their only chance for survival was to band together and function as one national entity. However, none of them wanted to be subjected to each others politics when it came domestic affairs, and thus the Constitution was written to create a system in which the state and local governments would be nearly autonomous in domestic affairs, but if threatened, could rely on the whole of The Republic for defense.

The Founding Fathers were strongly influenced by The Enlightenment, and instilled social values, such as the separation of Church and State and the belief in personal autonomy and self governance, which were rights granted to citizens as a condition of unity. They also feared usurpation, whether by a branch of government or a power-hungry individual, so they installed a system of checks and balances to ensure that the levers of power could never be placed in one individuals hands.