Introduction

            The American civil war was initiated by the split of the southern states which during that time went to form another federal government which was named, the Confederate States of America. Abraham Lincoln, who was the president, declared will not have an option but to use force to ensure that there is maintenance in possessing the federal property, Fort Sumter was attacked on 12 April 1861 which thus initiated the fight, the area attacked is within the Confederate state (Calore and Paul 25). The war went on and was won by the Union forces. The war also ended on nine May 1865 and was won by the Union forces. It resulted in the deaths of about 620000 to 750000 people (McPherson and James 21). The paper will discuss the economic, political and social causes of the war.

Industry vs. Farming

             Around the middle of 1800s, many of the northern states economies had moved from farming to invest in industries. Most of the people in the North had moved to large cities such as Boston and New York to work. The southern states, on the other hand, had maintained the practice of large farming economy which heavily depended on the slave labor (Calore and Paul 32). The North had moved to, and thus it did not need slaves. This was the opposite of the South because it depended on the slaves to work on the farms

 

 

States’ rights

Ideas concerning the state’s right were not something new to the civil war. There were debates and politics concerning the powers of the sovereign states and those of the federal government since the creation of the United States, and it led to the development of the two political strong parties which were the first of its kind. The Democratic-Republican Party was founded in 1792 which was led by Thomas Jefferson supported state rights and the federalist and it was led by Alexander Hamilton supported centralized national government (Calore and Paul 29). The leading cause of the conflict between the state and the federal was slavery, and the slave states believed that slavery was a state issue and it never accepted any federal intervention thus resulting in war.

Westward Expansion

            Politics on slavery continued as new states were added to the union and perceived balance of power between the southern and the northern existed as long as there was the same number of slaveholding states and slave Free states in the north. However, the addition of the new states to the union could tilt the scales of power depending on the side the territory joined. (Calore and Paul 34). The individuals in the northern states feared that, with the expansion of slavery to new states, there was a possibility they could involve themselves with the slaveholding states and therefore make them irrelevant and thus dominate the United States.

 The slave-holding states viewed slavery as the best option to expand their economy, and thus its expansion to new territories would result in increased production opportunities to enable them to grow their political and economic interest. This resulted in conflicts which led to the Missouri compromise in 1820 which made it clear that, land on the west of Mississippi ws considered as slave state and those which are on the north of the line except Missouri are Free states. The political problems continued with various debates and laws being set up, but it reached a point where the war was unavoidable.

Slavery

             Slavery was the main cause of misunderstanding between the slavery-holding states and Free states in the northern part.  The act of slavery even at that time was considered illegal in most areas of the northern part, but the slavery had been incorporated in the economy of the states in the south which had depended on the labor from the slaves to practice farming of the cotton. British and European industries were the market of the cotton. There were a lot of slaves in the South originating from Africa, and they served as the primary source of labor in the farms (Bonekemper and Edward 23). The political and the c social view of the people of the North had become more against slavery, and they wanted slavery to be declared illegal all the United States. Some of the people convinced others against slavery, and the south feared that their economy could fall, and thus it resulted in conflicts.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

            In the year 1854 the Act was passed which overturned the Missouri Compromise of 1820. This gave the people of the Kansas with the ability to choose the side they want allowed the residents of Kansas to decide whether they can join the slave state or the Free State. Individuals from both sides then flooded the region. For several years, they had engaged themselves in a battles in which several people lost their life and from this referred as me Bleeding Kansas. Kansas finally joint the union as among the Free State in 1861. Bleeding Kansas is considered as the precursor of the civil war because it is where the confrontation becomes more severe and physical.

 

Abraham Lincoln

            The debates of the Lincoln and Douglas of 1858 were a series of seven discussions which significantly discussed the issues of using slaves to farm in the United States. Those were the discussions that made Abraham Lincoln famous in federal politics, and he was able to be nominated for president in the year 1860. This completely disappointed the people from the south as his name was not even in the ballot in ten of the southern states. They hated him so much because of his stand. Abraham Lincoln was against slavery, and thus this was the main reason they did not like him (McPherson and James M 18). On November 6, 1860, he was elected as the president of the United States in the presidential election. The victory of Abraham Lincoln did not cause the civil war, but the southern states felt like they will lose the war in support of slavery and thus it resulted to secession which then leads to the beginning of civil war in 1861.

Secession

 After annunciation of the Abraham Lincoln winning as the president of the United States, there was a meeting in the South Carolina which called for a state convention which then voted unanimously favoring separation. This was done on December 20, 1860. Other states such as Georgia, Louisiana, Florida, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama also removed themselves from the federal government. They later made an agreement to come up with another government which they called the Confederate States of America, and this was done on February 4, 1861. (Bonekemper and Edward 24). The president of the united states Abraham Lincoln called the other states such as Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas to send forces to bring back the properties of the federal. The states were unwilling, and they opted to join the Confederates. The president had stated in his inauguration that force would be used to maintain the possession of the federal. This thus resulted in civil war

Work cited

Bonekemper, Edward H. The Myth of the Lost Cause: Why the South Fought the Civil War and Why the North Won. Simon and Schuster, 2015.

Calore, Paul. The Causes of the Civil War: The Political, Cultural, Economic and Territorial Disputes between North and South. McFarland, 2008.

McPherson, James M. The war that forged a nation: why the Civil War still matters. Oxford University Press, 2017.

McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom Oxford University Press, 2013.