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The causes of the Civil War The civil war lasted for a period of 4 years from the year 1861 to 1865. The war led to more than six hundred thousand casualties. The traces for the civil war are mainly from the tension that formed early in the history of the United States. The vast size of the United States resulted in divergent lifestyles and cultures in the South and North which were dictated by climatic and geographic differences producing raw materials which led either to industrialized city dwellers and farming communities. The paper shall describe the causes of the American civil war.
a. Economic and Social differences
The south was an agricultural state where tobacco and cotton formed the backbone of the economic strength of the area. Cotton had turned out to be profitable after the 1973 invention of the Cotton gin by Eli Whitney (Ford 18). The invention made it possible for the state to reduce the period that it took when the farmers were separating the seeds from the cotton. Nonetheless, the increase in the plantations number willing to shift from other crops implied the vast need for a vast among of the slave labor. Hence, the economy of the southern states turned to be a one crop economy that rely on cotton and hence on slavery (Ford 20). The region depended on exports to Western Europe. Social advancement was facilitated by the senior state families who acted as political, legal and economic brokers of the state on the people’s behalf. The northern state was in total contrast of the southern state. …show more content…
The northern state was industrializing a relatively quick rate. The entrepreneurs were accepted and perceived as important towards the industrial development of the nation. The industries situated at the north purchased raw cotton and turned them into finished products. The difference amid the two states lead to a major discrepancy in their economic attitudes (Ford 19). The north was largely focused on the urban life while the south was founded on the plantation system. The change in the Northern state implied that the society changed as people of divergent classes and cultures were forced to work together. Contrasting the south progressed holding on to outdated social order. b. Slavery Slavery was a core issue in the Southern state. The south depended on slave for labor to work in the cotton fields. The majority of people in the North held the belief that slavery was evil and wrong. The abolitionists wanted slavery to be prohibited in the entire nation (Carlisle 3). Various abolitionist leaders such as Harriet Tubman, Fredrick Douglass, John brown started encouraging more people regarding the evils related to slavery. This resulted in the Southern states fearful that their normal ways of life were coming to an end. Further on, as America started to expand as a result of the Mexican War and the lands that it gained after the Louisiana purchases, the main questions regarding whether new states that would be admitted within the union would be slave or free emerged. The 1820 Missouri Compromise banned slavery in various states (Ford 56). The 1850 Compromise dealt with the issue of the free and slave states, southern and northern interest. In Kansans, pro slavery people from Missouri started pouring into the state to help force the issue of slavery. They were named as Border Ruffian. Problems arose in Kansas and lead to a fighting that …show more content…
Whilst slavery is usually coined as the core causes, other cultural and political differences amid the South and the North states led to the war. The paper has discussed some of the differences amid the states and how they created a major divide amid the South and the North that ultimately contributed to the Civil war.
Work Cited:
Carlisle, Rodney P. Civil War and Reconstruction. New York: Facts On File, 2007. Internet resource.
Ford, Lacy. A Companion to the Civil War and Reconstruction. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2011. Internet resource.
Förster, Stig, and Jörg Nagler. On the Road to Total War: The American Civil War and the German Wars of Unification, 1861 - 1871. Cambridge [u.a.: Cambridge University Press [u.a., 2002.