The real underlying cause of the Civil War is one that has remained unresolved since the Revolution, nearly one hundred years earlier, namely the question of sovereignty and the right of each individual state to govern itself as the people saw best fit. Before the Revolution, each of the original thirteen states had been a colony administered by locally elected council and a royal government (Bridenbaugh 131). They were all different in climate, outlook, character, and even religion. One thing united them all, a growing resentment for rule from London (Bridenbaugh 66). In 1774, each colony sent delegates to a Continental Congress in Philadelphia to discuss their response to the British "Intolerable Acts." A bitter struggle followed that resulted in the colonies gaining independence from British rule. The problem of how to govern these states ensued. At first, the Articles of Confederation recognized the independence of each state and created a very weak central government to deal with almost nothing more than foreign policy. There was no executive branch to enforce any acts passed by Congress, nor a national court system. Also, amendments to the Articles of Confederation required a unanimous vote. This soon in practice proved to be a failure, and a new Constitution was adopted which created a stronger federal government with considerable powers to handle domestic issues (Bridenbaugh 155). In the creation of the United States, the states held a majority of the power with the authority to tax and possess militia. Here is the problem, the national government was given the powers to conduct war, but war will inevitably seize power from the states in order for the federal government to properly wage it.
As the Southern states succeed...
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In the spring 1861, years of building tensions between the northern states and southern states resulted in the American Civil War. In 1680 an anti-slavery Republican, Abraham Lincoln was elected president causing seven southern states to secede from the union. These seven states included--Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas--. These seven states formed the Confederate States of America. The American Civil War lasted from April 12, 1861 to May 9, 1865 and claimed more than roughly 620,000 lives. So what caused the Civil War? The three main causes of the Civil War were differences between the north and the south in economies, disagreements in abolishing slavery, and whether the State or Federal
There are various explanations as to who and what really caused the Civil War. It is even fair to say that sometimes morals stand in the way when deciding who really started the war. Therefore, the facts must be analyzed clearly and in depth. It is true that the north played a major role in the Civil War, however, the south would not release their strict traditional beliefs of slavery. As time progressed, slavery debates pressured the South more and more to stand by their strict beliefs. Fugitive acts, Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Secession all showed how the south used brutal methods to preserve slavery. Therefore, since the popular sovereignty doctrine, the pro-slavery souths’ strict use of slavery and decisions to secede from the nation, angered the north, leading to a civil war.
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In conclusion, due to economic, social, political differences between the North and the South and with territorial expansion, all of this added in causing the Civil War. During the early 1860s, the Civil War of America was a major conflict between the Union, and the Confederate of States. The United States was divided into the North and the South because of economic differences, and different lifestyles. The North was become industrialized at a very fast rate and focused more on city life. The South, in contrast, was still an agricultural society which depended mostly on cotton and slavery. There was so many reasons caused the Civil War to happen and it was an inevitable war.
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Many are clueless today on what caused the civil war in America. Three of the main causes of the war were: That nation was split into two totally different societies (Kelly), that the growth of slavery in American had become one of the most intense issues in America at this time period, and finally the election of the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.
Many causes led to the Civil War. This all happened around the mid 1800s. It was a conflict between the Northern and Southern states. Both sides had their own view on slavery, and their separate views caused contentions between the two. Both had different views on whether to expand or stop slavery growth to the West, or have slavery at all.
The Civil War officially began on April 12th, 1861, when Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard shot at the Union Troops currently occupying Fort Sumter. While this specific event may have marked the beginning of actual warfare, it was not the only event to spark the beginning of the Civil War in general. One of the most well-known causes of the Civil War is the conflict over slavery. The Southern states were very dependent on agriculture and the slave labor that was required to maintain healthy crops. On the other hand, the Northern states were more focused on factories and industrial work, and did not want slavery to expand as the country grew. As if this disagreement didn't cause enough tension, Southern states were seceding from the Union because they felt that the government (which at the time was run mostly by people from the North) was gaining too much power, and soon would have complete control over the Southern states. Starting with South Carolina, a total of eleven states seceded from the Union during this time period. The third cause of the Civil War was the taxes that were placed on many parts of the South. Taxes such as those placed on European goods imported to the South proved to be quite a burden for the people that lived down there, and this only further encouraged them to separate themselves from the Unio...