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
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.
The Civil War was unlike any other war ever fought in America and had many effects on the home front for both the North and the South. It is stated to be the first ever total war, which is a war against not only the civilians but also the armies. The Civil War is also considered the first modern war fought by the U.S. troops. Lincoln asked volunteers to sign up for only three months. Many people thought the war wouldn’t last long. However, the war continued on for four years. The Union armies had around 2,500,000 to 2,750,000 men and the Confederate army had approximately 750,000 to 1,250,000 men. The entire North and South society was affected by the war and desired for many social and economic assets. The Civil war brought new military techniques which caused the armaments to be more destructive. Ironclad ships and railroads were sufficiently used within the war. The north had a motive; they wanted to weaken the South’s longing to victory. The North tried to achieve this last motive by inflicting wholesale destruction upon the South (Janda, 1995). More than a hundred people seemed to be spies or secessionists in Maryland. In time, they were arrested due to not being faithful to the union and their state. Pro-secessionist newspapers were shut down, and telegrams and mail were censored (Perret, 2004).
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.
Before civil war broke out, several parts of history foreshadowed the growing divide between the northern and southern areas of the United States. One being, differences in culture and lifestyle. The south’s economy predominately based itself off of agriculture; specifically the growing of tobacco, corn, and cotton. The big southern plantations, owned by several white elitist men, used slavery to operate, another major cause for civil war. The northern economy thrived off of manufacturing and big industrial business. Northern politicians and elite class members supported tariffs and the use of training large armies. As the divide grew, tempers and attitudes flared, as d...
The economies of the North and South were vastly different leading up to the Civil War. Money was equivalent to power in both regions. For the North, the economy was based on industry as they were more modern and self-aware. They realized that industrialization was progress and it could help rid the country of slave labor as it was wrong. The North’s population had a class system but citizens could move within the system, provided they made the money that would allow them to move up in class. The class system was not as rigid as it was in the South. By comparison, the South wanted to hold on to its economic policy. In doing so, the practice of slavery kept the social order firmly in place. The economic factors, social issues and a growing animosity between the two regions helped to induce the Civil War.
The Civil War determined what kind of nation the United States would become. It determined whether it would be a nation with equal rights for everyone or the biggest country that still abused of slaves. The war started because of the brutal conditions slaves were living in. Many had no education what so ever and were treated worse than animals. Back then part of this country found this acceptable and demanded to keep their slaves while the others demanded freedom. Today there are many movies about the civil war. For example the movie Glory which was made in December 15, 1989 it was directed by Edward Zwick. The movie depicts the lives of African American soldiers who had to endure tougher training than the American man, and American officials who had to make these men into real action fighting soldiers. The defining characters in this movie were. Major Cabot Forbes who was very tender towards the African American soldiers and he even stood up for them. Private Trip gave up his freedom in order to fight is true fighter. Corporal Thomas Searles who struggled a lot in the training camp but in the end pulled through. Glory is mainly about men with struggles that have to overcome their torments in order to end the Civil War. It took time and strength but the colored regiment became just as good as any white one. Corporal Thomas Searles, Major Cabot Forbes, and Private Trip all fought for what they believed in even at the time of their last breathes something they would have never done at the beginning of the movie.
No other conflict has brought as much bloodshed, trauma, and division to the United States of America than the American Civil War. While other wars that Americans have fought in may have been fought on larger scales, with grander armies and greater resources, none compare to the lasting effects of the Civil War which continue to plague the Nation to this day. Approximately 618,000 Americans lost their lives between the years of 1861 and 1865. States, cities, and families turned on one another in a desperate struggle; a struggle which was to continue to divide the Nation long after the last guns had been fired.
The American civil war took place 150 years ago. The war ripped apart the young country and turned brother against brother. The American civil war ended the most grotesque American institution in its history and caused the nation to struggle for the next decade to recover from the devastation. The war caused a wealthy class to lose their stranglehold over the southern economy and ended politics being swayed by whether you were pro or anti slavery. The war caused the death of over 620,000 men, around 2% of the population. The American civil war is worth remembering today. It is worth remembering because it shapes the identity of who Americans are today. Without it, we cannot understand why a nation could be split over the death of a young delinquent named Trayvon Martin. Without it we cannot understand how Martin Luther King Jr. struggled to gain his dream. Without it we cannot understand why women fought for suffrage rights in the 1920s. What was the American civil war about? States rights? Slavery? Both? Perhaps this does not matter, perhaps all that matters is the end results, the prohibition of slavery and the emergence of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. The nation emerged with a new identity of freedom, not just whites, but people of all color. But the war did not end discrimination or racism, it saw different forms of it take place; forms that still effect us today. The Civil War is worth remembering because the Civil War still shapes America’s identity to this day.
Causing four years of bloodshed on American ground, the Civil War was considered to be one of the most divisive wars in American history. Lasting from 1861 to 1865, the US Civil War was fought between the American people, mainly the northern states versus the southern states. There is a common misconception that slavery is the key issue that led to the American Civil War. However, there were several other reasons that pushed American into the “Great American Tragedy”. Because the North and the South were very different economically, socially, and politically, and with territorial expansion all of this eventually resulted in the Civil War, or the War Between the States.
The North and South had totally different cultures and economies making their opinions on certain topics vastly different, hence contributing to the start of the war. The Southern state’s economy relied on the use of slaves to run their plantation system that produced mainly tobacco and cotton. “The price of cotton, the South’s defining crop, had skyrocketed in the 1850s, and the value of slaves—who were, after all, property—rose commensurately” (The American Civil War). Therefore the South was thriving economically. “With different geographies and climates, the North and the South developed very different economies and lifestyles” (Biel 11). The Northern economy was based on free labor and was able to abolish slavery due to a great amount of immigration due to the potato famine in Ireland. This caused the North and South to be vastly different in moral beliefs. The North became enlightened on the horrors of slavery through literature such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe which describe the mistreatment of slaves, this learning experience led to the abolit...
From it’s colonization, America had seemed to be a willingful advocate of slavery. As the 19th century began, it became apparent that Southern States, economically dependant on agricultural business and “King Cotton” continued to work enslaved Africans while the Northern States turned the other cheek. As time went on, Northern citizens and Southern citizens in a once-unified country came into conflict in several different ways. The three main causes (Infringement of civil liberties, infringement of states’ rights, and the economic and moral issues of slavery) made the conflict between the South and the North impossible to resolve, resulting in the inevitable Civil War.
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
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.
Eibling, Harold H., et al., eds. History of Our United States. 2nd edition. River Forest, Ill: Laidlaw Brothers, 1968.
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 ...