The Civil War that took place in the United States from 1861 to 1865 could have easily swung either way at several points during the conflict. There is however several reasons that the North would emerge victorious from this bloody war that pit brother against brother. Some of the main contributing factors are superior industrial capabilities, more efficient logistical support, greater naval power, and a largely lopsided population in favor of the Union. Also one of the advantages the Union had was that of an experienced government, an advantage that very well might have been one of the greatest contributing factors to their success. There are many reasons factors that lead to the North's victory, and each of these elements in and amongst themselves was extremely vital to the effectiveness of the Northern military forces. Had any one of these factors not been in place the outcome of the war could have been significantly different, and the United States as we know it today could be quite a different place to live. Throughout the early parts of the century the North had heavily concentrated on industrial improvement while the South had mostly concentrated on agricultural means. This proved to be of great significance, as the two sides would find themselves in a high cost and high demand war. During the onset of the war the "North contained 80% of total U.S. industry" (Rivera pg.1), and many of these production facilities were quickly and easily transformed in order to support the demands of the military. The South on the other hand had very few production facilities and most of them lay along the contested Border States, and they lost most of these facilities when West Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware opted to... ... middle of paper ... ...rieved on 17 May 2005, at: http://americancivilwar.com/authors/arrturo_rivera.html. U.S. State Department. "History-Civil War." US EMBASSY. Retrieved on 18 May 2005, at: http://usa.usembassy.de/history-civilwar.htm. "Why Did the North Win the Civil War." SOCIAL STUDIES HELP. Retrieved on 18 May 2005, at: http://www.socialstudieshelp.com/Lesson_35_Notes.htm. Zinnen, Robert O. Jr, Captain. "City Point: The Tool That Gave General Grant Victory." MILITARY HISTORY ABOUT. 1991. Retrieved on 16 May 2005, at http://militaryhistory. com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm.site=http%3A%2Fwww.mfound.com%2Fcitypt.htm.
The North entered the Civil War with many distinct assets that rendered them more competent than the Southern states. Those assets consisted of having more men, more financial stability, economic strength, and far reaching transportation systems. According to the book: Why the North Won the Civil War by Donald, David Herbert, and Richard Nelson the primary cause to the North’s success was given by, “the vast superiority of the North in men and materials, in instruments of production, in communication facilities, in business organization and skill – and assuming for the sake of the argument no more than rough quality in statecraft and generalship – the final outcome seems all but inevitable.” In many ways the north, during the Civil, was more economically dominant than the South
An even greater advantage of the North was its industrial development. The states that joined the Confederacy produced just seven percent of the nation’s manufactures on the eve of the war. What made the disparity even greater was that little of this was in heavy industry. The only iron foundry of any size in the Confederacy was the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, which had long supplied the United States Army. Tr...
I agree with the idea that the North had won the Civil War before it began to the extent of Lincoln’s conservative political stands. Trying to receive the favor of the South while winning in the North would require Lincoln to take neutral stands in heated political issues like slavery. It wasn’t really wan by the North until he broke away from these stands to enact the Emancipation Proclamation and turn the tides of war in favor of the North. “This Lincoln always publicly condemned the abolitionists who fought slavery by extra constitutional means – and condemned also the mobs who deprived them of their right of free speech and free press.” (Holfstadter, Lincoln and the Self-Made Myth) Other than that, the North had the upper hand in nearly all aspects that really mattered in times of war. With this information it is clear that without Lincoln’s conservative political stands a “Quick War” would have been much more realistic. Either way, the North had won the Civil War before it began. While the North thought about attacking and invading, the South thought about defending and causing attrition.
The union’s naval blockade against the South led to a gradual decrease of the shipment of war material and necessary supplies to the South and affected the export of Cotton the South’s most acceptable collateral (Beringer 54). Historian E. Merton Coulter wrote, “without a doubt the blockade was one of the outstanding causes of the strangulation and ultimate collapse of the Confederacy (Beringer 55). “None of the confederate generals ever understood the facts of modern war, that war and statecraft were one piece…. the northern generals were able to employ new ways of war (Donald 41). When the war began there was 23 northern states fighting for the union and only 11 confederate states fighting for the confederacy. (Robertson jr. 7). The population of the North was 22,000,000 people and the South’s population was 9,105,000 people. The North also had more men fight in the army than the South did (Robertso...
Since the beginning of their new nation, the United States had many differences between the Northern and Southern states. During the Constitutional Convention they disagreed on how to determine their representation in the house based on population; the Southerners wanted to count their slaves and the Northerners did not, which lead to the three-fifths compromise. Later in the Convention there were concessions given to the South, which left the Northerners feeling uneasy, such as: a guarantee that the slave trade would not be interfered with by Congress until 1808 and slave owners were given the right to recover refugee slaves from anywhere in the United States. While many Northern delegates were disappointed with the rights given to the South, they felt it was necessary for the good of the Nation. This was necessary to form a strong central government and union between the states.
"If wars are won by riches, there can be no question why the North eventually prevailed." The North was better equipped than the South, with the resources necessary to be successful in a long term war like the Civil War was, which was fought from 1861 1865. Prior, and during the Civil war, the North's economy was always stronger than the South's, boasting of resources that the Confederacy had no means of attaining. Compared to the South, The North had more factories available for production of war supplies and larger amounts of land for growing crops. Its population was several times of the South's, which was a potential source for military enlistees. Although the South had better naval leadership and commanders, such as Robert E. Lee and "Stonewall" Jackson, they lacked the number of factories and industries to produce needed war materials. Therefore, the North won the American Civil War due to the strength of their industrialized economy, rather than their commanders and strategies.
During the American Revolution and the civil war, the North and the South experienced development of different socio-political and cultural environmental conditions. The North became an industrial and manufacturing powerhouse as a result of rise of movements like abolitionism and women’s right while the South became a cotton kingdom whose labor was sourced from slavery (Spark notes, 2011).
The North and South were forming completely different economies, and therefore completely different geographies, from one another during the period of the Industrial Revolution and right before the Civil War. The North’s economy was based mainly upon industrialization from the formation of the American System, which was producing large quantities of goods in factories. The North was becoming much more urbanized due to factories being located in cities, near the major railroad systems for transportation of the goods, along with the movement of large groups of factory workers to the cities to be closer to their jobs. With the North’s increased rate of job opportunities, many different people of different ethnic groups and classes ended up working together. This ignited the demise of the North’s social order. The South was not as rapidly urbanizing as the North, and therefore social order was still in existence; the South’s economy was based upon the production of cotton after Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin. Large cotton plantations’ production made up the bulk of America’s...
The Civil War highlighted every aspect between the northern and southern states that was different. The Union and Confederacy had unchangeable views on politics, slavery, social classes, and means of economic achievement, thus caused constant friction amongst the divided nation. Since both the North and South would passionately stand by their beliefs, the Civil War would be inevitable due to the persistent patriotism each state had for their side of the United States. The South believed in state’s rights, supported slavery, had established the gentry class, and sustained the economy through agriculture, while the North believed in the country’s rights, was against slavery, had a strong middle class, and relied on industries for money. These differences were the main cause of the Civil War because northerners and southerners could not compromise with the one other without breaking away from their lifestyles.
The first reason that the north had the won the war was because of successful attempt in blockading the south with their U.S. merchant marine fleets and naval ships. The reason it was so successful was because it had cut off the supplies needed to fight the war for the south. Since their supplies were not as much as they needed the south had to rely on Europe even more for supplies just to continue fighting in the war. But by eliminating most of the ports into which supplies could come into the north, they deprived the south of its ability to properly fight. By the end of the war the south only choice was to really give up because the did not have any ammo, food, or even working weapons to continue fighting.
The South had a pre-war population of 9.1 million people. However, a large percentage of Southern residents were slaves. The South, on the battlefield alone, lost nearly three percent of its total population and close to five percent of its free population. In addition to the war dead, over hundred thousand Southern troops were injured in battle and the most common treatment for getting shot was amputation. The vast majority of these casualties were young men, and their deaths and war injuries took them out of the labor force.
The way that the Economies, Societies, and Politics from the North and South contributed differences in the Civil War is that the North and South differences. The economics of the North had increased population due of values contrasted and future visions. ‘’The economic differences between the North and South contributed to the rise of regional populations with contrasting values and visions for the future’’ (North and South, N/d). The South’s economy was on slaves and large farms or plantations. The societies were and were not balanced. The South’s population consisted more of slaves than white people, but they considered them as properties as well as one-third of a person. The North’s society was calmer and had less plantations or farms.
During the years of 1861 to 1865, numerous historical events took place; some of which led to the Union's victory in the American Civil War and to the freedom and rights that many United States citizens have been privileged today. Currently, almost all schools in the United States of America learn and study about the American Civil War. Although, most people now seem to take what the country had fought over for granted, there are also many who idolize and research about it. In the year of 1862, after only a year had passed since the Civil War had begun, both sides of the divided country had faced countless of difficulties. There were many horrid events that unfolded in 1862. Most of the events were battles, such as the Battle of
The South had less money and less troops. The South didn’t have an demographic advantage their population was way smaller. The Confederate troops had way more motivation than the Union troops because they were fighting for a way of life. The Union was fighting to stop something they didn’t want. The South had a lot of disadvantages and advantages. Their disadvantages are they had a weaker government, they didn’t have a navy, and they didn’t have factories. Some advantages the North had was they had very good military officers. They had experience from the Mexican War and they went to military school.(Strategies, Advantages, and Disadvantages, for the North and the South) The South really only had one political advantage, it was called Wartax. This basically gave the South more money during the war so they could provide their troops more weapons. They could also train their troops better with more money.The South social disadvantage is that they didn’t have to many big cities so all of there people were spread out and not conjoined together like the Union. Also the South didn’t have as easy transportation that the North did. Lincoln tried getting Robert E. Lee to be the leader in the North even though he lived in the South. He ended up declining the offer and became the leader for the South. The South also had Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson as one of their generals. He was shot by one of his own troops and was severely injured. He ended up dying a week later. The war ended on April 9, 1865. The war ended because Ulysses S. Grant ended up making Robert E Lee surrender at McLean’s home around 1 o’clock in the afternoon.(Robert E. Lee surrenders) These are the advantages and the disadvantages that mainly affected the Civil War and helped the North
This was an advantage for the North who had strong industrial power and farmland used for food crops (Lombardo). Industrially, the North had 101 thousand factories, 1.1 million factory workers, and 20 thousand miles of railroad, all those drastically surpassed the South which had 9 thousand factories, 70 thousand factory workers, and 1.7 thousand miles of railroad. In addition to industrial, the union outclassed in agricultural too because they focused more on food crops rather than profit-based crops. Since the North outperformed the South with their development, they overall had more money which could finance the war better