Sectional Economic Conflict

From 1800-1860, the market was described as a system in which “increasing the size of their shops and subsidizing tasks, master craftsmen were able to produce more, but they did so at the cost of severing themselves from the rituals and traditions of the artisan world.”(Rise). And, this separation became more than just separation from tradition as it became the crease that would eventually lead to war between the North and the South. Due to their increasing will to gain power of the economy, the two focused on their specialization. Soon, there was competition that was deadly and which was not helped on by transportation, expansion, and the conflict between factory and field. For this, sectional economic conflict was the single greatest cause …show more content…
The Western Hemisphere was opening up to expansion due to the ideal of Manifest Destiny which was created by John O’ Sullivan. It all began with the Indian Removal Act, which although was before this ideal was mentioned, when they began to see the prosperity that expanding to new territories could bring them. This was alluded to with the Railroad act which stated that “The United States shall extinguish as rapidly as may be the Indian titles to all lands falling under the operation of this act.…”(Excerpts). Not only was the Indian removal heavily argued against as they had adapted to the white culture, but it allowed the South to move to that territory and since they needed slaves to cultivate the land, they bought more slaves which arises the issue of slavery even more. The Missouri Compromise in 1820 showed an attempt to stop the expansion of slavery as it only allowed slavery under the 3630’ line. This lowered discussion about it and it also allowed the seats in Congress to be mostly evenly distributed between free and slave states. This sectional conflict only put the problem on pause, but did not stop it so when territory like California, Arizona, and New Mexico was won due to the Mexican-American War the problem escalated to such extremes that the war was inevitable. The Compromise of 1850 …show more content…
Technological advancements helped each one as it “harnessed to both agriculture and industry, plus a huge influx of immigrants to serve as a ready labor force, created a new dynamic economy”(Dickinson). When it came to the North, they were becoming increasingly dependent on factories as it brought them the most economic prosperity. While the South did have factories, it was never as intense as they mostly focused on agriculture and their King Cotton. Cotton brought them so much prosperity that they believed it “could buy ars, finance war, and lay the economic foundation of a nation”(Dattel). This cocky attitude toward this one crop is what made them confident enough to leave the Union as they believed that they could take care of themselves by trading overseas with Britain. What the South did not account for was that Britain had stocked up on cotton so during the war, they provided some economic comfort to the South, but then began to trade more with the North for wheat which they were getting from California. While the cotton agriculture gave them too much confidence, it was actually the North again that really benefited as the invention of the cotton mill was introduced and the North made hundreds of factories in order to make cloth more efficiently. While the South also had availability to these gins, they were also able to