American Civil War – Yankees and Confederates: mid-19th Century To what extent was the Civil War inevitable?
To a great extent the Civil War was inevitable. In 1861, the Civil War in America began, lasting four years and causing terrible destruction. The factors of different economies, slavery and human rights, different views of the Constitution, the westward expansion and Lincoln’s election contributed to the outbreak of war. Although the North and South tried to reconcile their differences with major political compromises in 1820 and 1850, both attempts failed. ‘There is no way the war could have possibly been avoided.’
The different economies that emerged from the North and the South following the Mexican war had an effect on the commencement of the Civil War. In the mid-nineteenth century many immigrants fled the conflict in Europe, finding refuge in America. They mainly populated the North as the Southern economy made it hard to compete with slaves for work. Different economies that emerged from the North and South
* Tariffs
* Industries
* Growth of cities and industry in the North, immigrants, industrialisation * Need for slavery in the South, significance of cotton plantations Slavery and human rights
* The effects of slavery on the south
* Life for slaves
* Blacks fighting slavery – Nat Turner rebellion
* Politics
* John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry
* Dred Scott
* Abolitionists – Uncle Tom’s Cabin
The different views of the constitution
* States’ rights
* Northerners wanted the Congress of the USA to make available free land
for independent farmers * The South wanted slavery extended into the newly settled western states The westward expansion
* Missouri Compromise
* Kansas-Nebraska Act
* These agreements were only temporary solutions
* ‘Bleeding Kansas’ – 1856 civil war
Lincoln’s election
* Wanted the abolition of slavery
* Brought an end to the Southern domination of the federal government * Formation of the CSA
* Southern forces firing on Fort Sumter
