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Why was the civil war started
What causes the civil war essay amh 2010
Why was the civil war started
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The Civil War The name Civil War is misleading because the war was not a class struggle, but a sectional combat, having its roots in political, economic, social, and psychological elements. It has been characterized, in the words of William H. Seward, as the “irrepressible conflict.” In another judgment the Civil War was viewed as criminally stupid, an unnecessary bloodletting brought on by arrogant extremists and blundering politicians. Both views accept the fact that in 1861 there existed a situation that, rightly or wrongly, had come to be regarded as insoluble by peaceful means. In the days of the American Revolution and of the adoption of the Constitution, differences between North and South were dwarfed by their common interest in establishing a new nation. But sectionalism steadily grew stronger. During the 19th century the South remained almost completely agricultural, with an economy and a social order largely founded on slavery and the plantation system. These mutually dependent institutions produced the staples, especially cotton, from which the South derived its wealth. The North had its own great agricultural resources, was always more advanced commercially, and was also expanding industrially. Hostility between the two sections grew perceptibly after 1820, the year of the Missouri Compromise, which was intended as a permanent solution to the issue in which that hostility was most clearly expressed—the question of the extension or prohibition of slavery in the federal territories of the West. Difficulties over the tariff (which led John C. Calhoun and South Carolina to nullification and to an extreme states' rights stand) and troubles over internal improvements were also involved,... ... middle of paper ... ...ed have been defeated and the Government itself has been destructive of them by the action of the nonslaveholding states,”- declared South Carolina, feeling discontent about the government “encouraging and assisting thousands of slaves to leave their homes.” (A Declaration of the Causes Which Induced the Secession of South Carolina, South Carolina, December 24, 1860) Lincoln responded to this action that no state has a right to leave the Union: “In doing this there needs to be bloodshed and violence; and there shall be none, unless it be forced upon the national authority.” (Abraham Lincoln, The US History, Chapter 17, p.338, 1977) But the southern answer was war! Hence, although the Civil War was the result of extremism and failures of leadership on both sides, or, sometimes, as an irrepressible conflict, it was difficult to avoid it.
The American Civil War is one of the biggest turning points in American history. It marks a point of major separation in beliefs from the North and the South and yet somehow ends in a major unification that is now called the United States of America. It still to date remains the bloodiest war in American history. The book “This Republic of Suffering, Death and the American Civil War” by Drew Gilpin Faust better explains the change in thought from the American people that developed from the unexpected mass loss of soldiers that devastated the American people. Throughout this review, the reader will better understand the methods and theory of this book, the sources used, the main argument of the book, the major supporting arguments, and what the author did well and what the author didn’t do well.
When Abraham Lincoln spoke at his inauguration on March 1861, the nation’s mood was grim. It was a frigid day and the sky was grey. Even worse, nobody knew how the newly-elected President, a novice lawyer, would handle the nation’s biggest problem since its inception: Southern secession. The U.S., and its grandeur and resplendence were at stake and were now reduced to nothing more than the preposterous “Disunited States of America.” Americans were in a state of perplexity, and one question remained etched in the minds of Americans: “Did the South have a legal right to secede from the Union?” No, the South did not have a legal right to secede from the Union, due to the longevity of the Union, the solidarity between the states, and the menacing implications secession entails.
Geographically, North and South were very different places. The pastures of New England were similar to those found in England, suitable for a variety of uses. Hot Southern prairie lands were perfect for cotton growing, a lucrative business at this time. Following the invention of Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin, the South became increasingly dependent on this crop, and an entire society grew out of it. The society was one of wealthy planters, who led a life similar to the landed gentry of England, controlling politics and society of the day. In the fields laboured Negro slaves, usually only a handful per plantation, though larger farms were occasionally seen. In addition, there lived poor whites, tenant farmers or smallholders, who eked out a living from the land. This contrasted sharply with Northern society, where industrialisation flourished, creating wealthy entrepreneurs and employing cheap immigrant labour. Given the localised nature of media, and difficulties of transport two cultures grew up in the same nation, remarkably different and often suspicious of one another.
...ld not protect the interest of the Southern states. Coupled with the hostilities, lack of votes for Lincoln from the South and disregard for the constitutional protection of slavery is a justifiable reason from the Southern leaders to secede from the Union.
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...
Apostles of Disunion explores the contrasting ideologies that eventually lead up to one of the bloodiest wars in American History. However, many argue whether the clashing political philosophies were the cause of a different economy or paranoid leaders. Hence, the North consisted of free-labor, meanwhile, the south was planter-dominated. The needs of the two sides differed which was a major aspect of the causation of the civil war.
Believing that the Union was sovereign and perpetual, they viewed secession as an illegal and a revolutionary act. They feared that it would lead quickly to a fragmentation of the United States and put an end to America's mission of serving as a beacon of free government to the rest of the world. Still, no consensus existed on using force to get the seceded states back into the Union. In particular, Democrats were against it and favored negotiations to heal the sectional rift, even with the continuation of slavery. At the same time, the Unionists in the Upper South who had turned back secession in their slave states proclaiming that they would resist any Republican use of military force against a seceded
When the founding fathers established the successful United States of America, they never would have imagined the country separated. The unity of America became something that was enamored by other countries, until the issues of 1850-60s arose. Looking back in history, several occasions present themselves as instigators of the Civil War.
In the beginning of the 1800s, economic diversities between the two different regions had also grown. By the year 1860, cotton was the chief crop for the South; it also represented fifty-seven percent of all American exports. The prosperity of cotton fulfilled the South's reliance on the plantation system and its crucial elementslavery.
Tempers raged and arguments started because of the Missouri Compromise. The simple act caused many fatal events because of what was changed within the United States. It may not seem like a big thing now, but before slavery had been abolished, the topic of slavery was an idea that could set off fights. The Missouri Compromise all started in late in 1819 when the Missouri Territory applied to the Union to become a slave state. The problem Congress had with accepting Missouri as a slave state was the new uneven count of free states and slave states. With proslavery states and antislavery states already getting into arguments, having a dominant number of either slave or free states would just ignite the flame even more. Many representatives from the north, such as James Tallmadge of New York, had already tried to pass another amendment that would abolish slavery everywhere. Along with other tries to eliminate slavery, his effort was soon shot down. The fact that people couldn’t agree on whether or not slavery should be legalized made trying to compose and pass a law nearly impossible.
Dunne, Jemima, and Paula Regan, eds. The Civil War. New York City: DK Publishing, 2011. Print
According to article “Lincoln’s Journey to Emancipation” written by author Stephen B. Oates. “After Lincoln's victory and the secession of the seven states of the Deep South. Lincoln beseeched Southerners to understand the Republican position on slavery. In his Inaugural Address of 1861. he .15- sured them once again that the federal government would not tree the slaves in the South. that it had no legal right to do so. He even gave his blessings to the original Thirteenth Amendment. just passed by Congress. that would have guaranteed slavery in the Southern states for as long as whites there wanted it”. But the rebels out the south wanted to do things there way and continued to rebel against the United
The explosion of the American Civil War was caused by a vast number of conflicting principles and prejudices, fueled by sectional differences, and set afire by a very unfortunate set of political events. Undoubtedly, the central theme of almost all of the events that led up to the Civil War was one way or another, related to the dispute of slavery. Throughout the nineteenth century, slavery-related tensions brewed to such an extent, that politicians often took accustom to avoiding the hot topic altogether, because they were too scared of either starting a big political feud, or losing votes from one side of the issue or the other. More specifically, three events that were most instrumental in bringing about the Civil War were the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 and the Presidential election of 1860. Because of such strong reactions to these events, the Civil War was practically unstoppable, however if the parties wanted to avoid a war altogether, they could have advocated more compromise and popular sovereignty.
The American Civil War was the bloodiest military conflict in American history leaving over 500 thousand dead and over 300 thousand wounded (Roark 543-543). One might ask, what caused such internal tension within the most powerful nation in the world? During the nineteenth century, America was an infant nation, but toppling the entire world with its social, political, and economic innovations. In addition, immigrants were migrating from their native land to live the American dream (Roark 405-407). Meanwhile, hundreds of thousand African slaves were being traded in the domestic slave trade throughout the American south. Separated from their family, living in inhumane conditions, and working countless hours for days straight, the issue of slavery was the core of the Civil War (Roark 493-494). The North’s growing dissent for slavery and the South’s dependence on slavery is the reason why the Civil War was an inevitable conflict. Throughout this essay we will discuss the issue of slavery, states’ rights, American expansion into western territories, economic differences and its effect on the inevitable Civil War.
The causes and result of the Civil War have scholarly been perceived diverse. This paper will give a detailed analysis the observations providing clear and concrete support.