The Civil War in America

Civil War:

The Civil War (1861- 1865), was a defining event in American history. (History.com staff. 2009). The war was between states within America, based on their views on slavery. It started when Abraham Lincoln decreed that slavery will not be allowed in the United States of America. This outraged seven of the slave states which then separated themselves from the United States to create a new nation called the Confederate States of America. (McPherson, J. 2013) The Americas was then divided into two factions, the Union in the North of the United States and the Confederates in the southern parts of the United States and a few border states which were part of the Union but still allowed slavery. (McPherson, J. 2013).

During the war, illustrations and cartoons in the print media became available to the American public. These images were used as a means of propaganda during this time as the government and armed forces used it to recruit men to fight against or for slavery (Johnson, L. 2012). Both the Union and the Confederates used the new advances in print media to further their causes (Johnson, L. 2012). Multiple posters where made primarily using Lithography and engraving techniques, some elements of colour where applied by hand, but not in all posters. The North intended to make the South seem immoral for having slaves and trying to appeal to the sympathy of the northern people by using this form of classic propaganda techniques (Johnson, L. 2012).

The Hillhouse Light Infantry poster (1862-1863), depicts the liberty cap above Lady Liberty, the shield and the eagle. Lady Liberty’s clothes are depicted in the colours of the American flag, red, white and blue. These colours are also shown on the shield an...

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...over to Germany in may and they where given 3 weeks to come up with a response (Duffy, 2009). The treaty was meant to put an end to the war, but it was mearly a long truce as a few decades later there was a second world war (Hutchcroft, 2008).

The War set the stage as a form of testing new weapons and machinery, each country had a specific form of rifle, pistol, flame thrower, tanks, machine guns and so on, some working more effectively than others (Duffy, 2009). This was a war in which many weapons where used that had never been udes before, these where weapons such as: Tanks, Planes, Submaines, wirless communication in the form of a telegraph and machine guns (Hutchcroft, 2008), This was also a time where experiments with long range artillery could be tested, these where ment to do as much damage as possible with the use of deadly shrapnel and poisionous gas.