The North's Role In The Cause Of The Civil War

Economic differences between the North and the South played a pivotal role in the cause of the Civil War. The North was industrialized, and their work depended on machines and manufacturers. They had long winters, and short summers, making it hard for them to use agriculture as their main source of economy. The North had five times the number of factories than the South, and over ten times the number of factory workers. In addition, 90% of the nation's skilled workers were in the North. (Marc Schulman) With the increase of employment in the North it was obvious that the population started to grow. With more people came a demand for representation in proportion to the size of its population. In the South, however, one-third of the population …show more content…
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was one of the most crucial events leading up to the Civil War. In 1854 the Kansas-Nebraska Act created territories for both Kansas and Nebraska. This gave a chance for people to move slavery to the Midwest. Also, it allowed the territories of Kansas and Nebraska the choice whether they wanted to be a free state, or a slave state. The only problem with this was that there was already a compromise to the location of slavery. This was called the Missouri Compromise, it said that there was no slavery North of latitude 36°30’. The point of this compromise was to make sure that the balance in congress was fair between the free and slave states. When the Kansas-Nebraska act was passed through congress on May 30, 1854, the North was stunned. (history-world.org) Stephen A. Douglas, the man who brought the Kansas-Nebraska act to congress was a strong believer in popular sovereignty. Since he felt so strongly about it, he said that popular sovereignty would decide whether or not Kansas and Nebraska would be a free state or slave state. This decision caused a huge disagreement between the North and South because this would allow slavery north of the Mason-Dixon dividing line created in the Missouri Compromise. The fight over slavery was then transferred to the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. Proslavery supporters from the South, and antislavery supporters from the North, rushed into Kansas to try and win the territory as their own. War broke out in the territory of Kansas, as two different legislatures came to life. Eventually the death toll rose, and this is how the fight got the nickname of “Bleeding Kansas”. This fight was known as the war before the civil war, and was an important event that helped to cause the fight of the Civil