The American Civil War The American Civil War had made a major impact on the course of the nation's history. Slavery was a major factor in Southern and Northern USA's economy — the South had used slaves in cotton plantations, and the North relied on the South to provide cotton for them to manufacture and trade. However, in the Pre-Civil War era, people had started to gain a sense of morality to stop slavery. The Northerners believed in abolition, but the South had relied on slavery in order to grow. Tensions had built up between the two, until the South had decided to secede, or withdraw, from the Union. Although both Northerners and Southerners had believed strongly in their causes, both sides had a different perspective over slavery that would spark the event of a deadly war. The period before the Civil War, also known as the Antebellum years, was a time when America grew into a great nation. Industrialization had flourished, and the infrastructure of the nation grew. However, although this nation had grown large, it was slowly starting to separate in this era. Northerners and Southerners disagreed over various issues like states' rights, multiple tariffs, and most importantly, the debate over slavery. Although both parts of the country were still linked together as a part of the United States of America, a division was starting to show itself. The growth of this nation, both good and bad, during the Antebellum years would eventually play a key role in the years ahead. During the period of the Antebellum years (1820 to 1860), industrialization became a more popular thing. Many key inventions were created in this time period, like the telegraph and the railroad system. Both provided a faster means of communication and trans... ... middle of paper ... ...assassinated.The war had a large toll upon the whole nation— families were lost, businesses destroyed, and houses and building in need of repair. The Civil War was a very costly war, not just in money, but also in lives. The Civil War was the most costly in American History, and it has remained a valuable part of it so that America may remember to not fight its brethren. Works Cited Davidson, James W., Stoff, Michael B., America History of our Nation. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. 2006. Print. Doedon, Matt. The Civil War. Mankato, Minnesota: Capstone Press. 2010. Print. Weirder History Group. historynet.com. Antebellum Period. n.d. Web. May 1, 2014 Paul (no specified last name). sonsofthesouth.net. The Civil War. n.d. Web. April 28, 2014 Mintz, S., McNeil, S.. digitalhistory.edu. Pre-Civil War Era & Civil War. n.d. Web. April 27, 2014
Eibling, Harold H., et al., eds. History of Our United States. 2nd edition. River Forest, Ill: Laidlaw Brothers, 1968.
The decades leading up to the American Civil War showed a great divide in the economic, political, and regional attitudes between the North and South. These divisions still plague the country today. However, there is a divide on whether economic anxieties or political differences were the major factor in the run up to the Civil War.
In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected as president of the United States of America, the repercussions of which led to civil war. However it was not only Lincoln’s election that led to civil war but also the slavery debate between the northern and southern states and the state of the economy in the United States. Together with the election of Lincoln these caused a split, both politically and ideologically, between the North and South states which manifested into what is now refereed to as the American Civil War.
War is in many circumstances is the only solution between two opposing forces when dealing with great difficulties . The American Civil War was no different than any other war but could be separated from others due to the role that African Americans took in configuring the direction of the conflict and aftermath of the Civil War.The period between the 1861 and 1870 is the essential time frame to analyze the development of the Antebellum Era to the apex of eruption of the warfare during the War between the states, followed by the age of Reconstruction which altered history to form America today. The President of the Union, Abraham Lincoln believed that any measure should be taken to preserve the Union, while the South believed in the power of the individual confederate states. African Americans were active participants,
Young children for generations have learned that the purpose of the Civil War, or the war between the states, was to free the slaves. The noble goal of freeing the slaves and ending slavery became the focus of instruction and the way most Americans would explain the cause of the Civil War. When the North entered the American Civil War it had many reasons to do so, least of which was to end the practice of slavery in the South, its primary goal was the preservation of the Union . To fully understand the issues leading up to the American Civil War and the motivation for the North engaging in this conflict, it is necessary to learn about: The economy, ideology, and statistics of the United States in the
“War is at best barbarism….Its glory is all moonshine….War is hell. (Union General William Tecumseh Sherman) A wise quote by an even wiser man, The Civil War was agreed a “hell”. For four years (1862-1865) a war was fought between both Northern Union states and Southern Confederate states over the matter of slavery. During this time period many changes were happening in the United States; the election of an anti-slavery president, Southern states trying to secede to become their own independent country. These factors and many more including slavery were the main causes of The Civil War. To begin slavery was the main income for southern states.
The Civil War that occurred was one of the darkest times in our history as a country. It was a time where there was a complete breakdown of social and political systems. Hundreds of thousands were killed and hundreds of thousands more were aversely affected. However, it was also a time of remembrance and significant moral progress. It is remembered as the turning point in American History and would be the foundation for the Civil Rights movement many years later.
The Southern and Northern states varied on many issues, which eventually led them to the Civil War. There were deep economic, social, and political differences between the North and the South. These differences stemmed from the interpretation of the United States Constitution on both sides. In the end, all of these disagreements about the rights of states led to the Civil War. There were reasons other than slavery for the South?s secession. The manifestations of division in America were many: utopian communities, conflicts over public space, backlash against immigrants, urban riots, black protest, and Indian resistance (Norton 234). America was a divided land in need reform with the South in the most need. The South relied heavily on agriculture, as opposed to the North, which was highly populated and an industrialized society. The South grew cotton, which was its main cash crop and many Southerners knew that heavy reliance on slave labor would hurt the South eventually, but their warnings were not heeded. The South was based on a totalitarian system.
To understand the importance of the debate on if the Civil War was preventable or not, it is crucial to note how influential this event was on the nation as a whole. At Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, the Confederate artillery fired the first shots that begun the Civil War. There were numerous battles, like the Battle of Gettsburg and Chickamauga that resulted in millions of causalities. In fact, according to civilwar.org, “The Battle of Antictam (September 17, 1862) remains American’s single bloodiest day” with 3,652 deaths. This four years war from 1861 to 1865 was “proved to be the costliest war ever fought on American soil, with some 620,000 of 2.4 million soldiers killed, millions more injured and the population and territory of the South devastated” (“American Civil War”). Interestingly enough, war was never in the plans of either of the leaders at the time.
No sudden occurrence, the American Civil War stemmed from decades of sectionalism within the United States, which had separated the industrialized North, home to a growing antislavery movement, from the agricultural, slavery-dependent South. The latter region used the United States Constitution to justify the maintenance of slavery; specifically, the South cited the Tenth Amendment, which gran...
Dunne, Jemima, and Paula Regan, eds. The Civil War. New York City: DK Publishing, 2011. Print
The Civil War was a war between the North and the South after several states in the south seceded after Lincoln's Presidency. The war first started off as states rights but as the war went on and progressed the war was fighting to end slavery. African Americans had an important impact on the Civil War.
The Civil War was the worst war in American history. More Americans died in this war than World War 1 and 2. The events that lead up to the Civil War show that it was a conflict that was going to arise no matter what happened.
The Civil War has been viewed as the unavoidable eruption of a conflict that had been simmering for decades between the industrial North and the agricultural South. Roark et al. (p. 507) speak of the two regions’ respective “labor systems,” which in the eyes of both contemporaries were the most salient evidence of two irreconcilable worldviews. Yet the economies of the two regions were complementary to some extent, in terms of the exchange of goods and capital; the Civil War did not arise because of economic competition between the North and South over markets, for instance. The collision course that led to the Civil War did not have its basis in pure economics as much as in the perceptions of Northerners and Southerners of the economies of the respective regions in political and social terms. The first lens for this was what I call the nation’s ‘charter’—the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the documents spelling out the nation’s core ideology. Despite their inconsistencies, they provided a standard against which the treatment and experience of any or all groups of people residing within the United States could be evaluated (Native Americans, however, did not count). Secondly, these documents had installed a form of government that to a significant degree promised representation of each individual citizen. It was understood that this only possible through aggregation, and so population would be a major source of political power in the United States. This is where economics intersected with politics: the economic system of the North encouraged (albeit for the purposes of exploitation) immigration, whereas that of the South did not. Another layer of the influence of economics in politics was that the prosperity of ...
Horrific! The American Civil War, also known as the War Between States and the War Of Secession, was an extremely gruesome and bloody war (World Book 614). The war, which started on April 12, 1861, when the southern troops fired on Fort Sumter, and ended 4 years later, took more American lives than any other war in history (614). This war was between a divided union in whish the southern states were trying to preserve slavery while the northern states were dedicated to a more modern way of life and were trying to end slavery (614). This war was fought in the minds of great men like Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee and the end of the war was the beginning of a slavery free nation. The American Civil War was a horrible event in the history of the world which started from three main causes: slavery, disputes over states' rights, and because of the division which existed between the South and the North.