Civil War School Of Thought Analysis

When examining the history of the United States Civil War, there are three schools of thought: that the war was fought over states’ rights; that it was fought over the issue of slavery and its abolition; and that it was fought purely because two different societies had been created that could not peacefully life in the same country.
The school of thought that claims slavery is the cause of the Civil War believes the most straightforward explanation of the Civil War’s roots. It is the most commonly taught explanation for the Civil War.
Slavery can be seen as the most significant cause of the Civil War because of the abolitionist movement. The abolitionists began as a group in the 1830s and grew steadily, especially in the North. Several very famous people of …show more content…
Under federal law, the states couldn’t impose tariffs the way that the federal government could, and since the North and South often had differing commercial interests this meant a tug-of-war between the two. There is actually precedent for secession due to having not enough freedom to create tariffs, in the form of the Nullification Crisis. The Nullification Crisis took place under Andrew Jackson, and occurred when he imposed a series of federal tariff policies, some of which reached as high as 50 percent on products that greatly affected Southern agribusiness such as textiles. South Carolina immediately threatened to secede, stating that such a tariff (which would later be nicknamed the Tariff of Abominations) was in violation of its states’ rights. Andrew Jackson did eventually force South Carolina back into the union, but the precedent had already been set. South Carolina and some of the other southern states chafed against federal restrictions. It is possible that the core reason the South seceded was because they wanted greater independence to create tariffs, as well as regulate their own