HIS-105 FINAL
The year 1861 in April was when the civil war began which included a war between the southern and the northern states of America. It was seen by not only the American but also the whole world. It began after Lincoln entered into the office while he pledged to get rid of slavery among the southern terrorists and this made the terrorist secede to join the northern states and Lincoln decided to take matters into his hand. The countries of the North had dubbed themselves as the Union while the Southern States identified themselves as the Confederacy.
Even before the American Revolution, the conflict between the North and the South was still present. The social, political and economic structure was different between the two regions and around the 1800s, these disparities widened (Foner). In 1861, the Civil War began between these two areas and what majorly caused the war was their regional differences. Among the issues that differed in the two regions include;
Slavery: -Slavery was seen as one of the reasons for the civil war. Slavery had been nearly prohibited by the 1800s in the North while in the South; it was a business that was embraced by the entire community. Nearly a hundred percent of the black population who resided in states such as Ohio, Massachusetts were free and not obligated to work for the whites as slaves. In the Confederate territory, it was contrasted to the Union’s. In the South, few blacks were free with Virginia having the largest number of blacks who were slaves. This issue of slavery played a paramount part when it came to dividing the Northern and the Southern people as every region had its own say.
Political Identities: -when it came to matter dealing with political alignments, the two areas differed entirely. During the early 1800s era, The Southern people belonged to the Democrats while the Northern supported the Whig Party. By mid-1850, the Whig party had already collapsed, and many Northerners decided to become Republicans. The mere fact that the two regions never agreed even when it came to political alignments, a rift was always present in the two regions.
Industrialization: -The slave business had blossomed and developed the Southern economy while providing support to agriculture. For the case of the Northern people, having a free slave society enabled industrialization to take place. By the moment the Civil War had begun, only 0ne-eith of the entire US industrial capacity had been situated in the South. The North, on the other hand, is where the industrial capacity lied. They were responsible for producing the states pig irons and firearms. The presence of industrialization attracted European Migrants who came to build cities in the North. Instead of industrialization, the south only majored in agriculture.
By looking at all the differences, these two regions had, and what motivated each area to fight, it’s clear that the Civil War was inevitable. Regardless of what time, the war was bound to erupt majorly due to the many differences each region had. The complexity of the American community developed after Independence. What played contributed to this complexity was the renewal of slavery. These and among others are some of the elements that triggered a conflict between regions and economic classes. During the early nineteenth century, the economic difference between the two regions had increased. In the South for examples, Cotton was the chief crop and stood for half of the US exports.
It continued to develop as the year’s pass and this lead to the South depending on the plantation system entirely, and this brought about slavery. The northern by then had fully concentrated and established themselves as the industrial society. The northerners never preferred slave trade, and since labor was needed, many immigrants came to the north to work in factories. What the North produced was also expected. The southern opposed the introduction of high tariffs while the northern demanded high tariffs on imported goods to be able to protect their product from the cheap competition. This misunderstanding is what proves that the civil war was inevitable as each region wanted to be superior and have a say in everything.
However, some scholars and historians believe the Civil war could have been stopped if the burning issue had been addressed. One of these problems included slavery. Slavery had been one of the core causes of the civil war. The Northern people were anti-slavery while the Southern were pro-slavery. Historians argue that the entire issue would have been avoided if slavery had been made legal in all states. If the elected officials had met and had a meeting regarding all the issue facing both regions, a plan for reunification would have been drafted. According to Foner (2014), the civil war would have been avoided if President Lincoln had been replaced. Most southern states were not in support of President Lincoln as he paid most of his attention to the Northern states. If President Abraham had been impeached, then the possibility of this war being averted would have been high. Someone who paid all his attention to both states would have been fit for the seat of President.
When the war began, each side had its own objective and goal that they focused on. One of the goals the Confederacy had been to secure a complete independence from the North while establishing an independent country free from the repression of slavery and the Northern politics. Their goal was based on the belief that the Constitution was in support of the continuation of slavery, but the Union rejected it. This forced the Southerners to secede with the aim of defending their right (Foner). The union, on the other hand, was focused on uniting states under a Union where slavery was unacceptable. Their goal was due to the belief that the South had no right to go ahead and secede from the Union. As the war continued, the Confederacy goal stayed intact, but the Union changed their objective. The North decided to change their reason for fighting to freeing slavery after it had become clear to President Abraham that the North would lose the war.
Regardless of the hardships experienced, the Union won the civil war due to the numerous advantages it had over the Confederacy. One of the advantages the Union had over the Confederacy was good leadership. The Union mostly boasted the existence of valuable leaders in their side such as Philip Sheridan, Abraham Lincoln among others. Another advantage was their booming economy. The civil war began when they were in the middle of their industrial revolution which had boosted their economy and supplies were readily accessible. Another advantage was the presence of a large population. When compared to the Southern population, the North population was double their population, and the difference in numbers came in handy during the civil war.
The North had anticipated for their war not to take more than 90 days. This is because; they were well prepared as they had more soldiers and more resources. However, the war ended up taking more time as anticipated. One reason that led to the civil war to last longer was due to clever military strategies and tactics. The South plan was to preserve their armies which were small and destroy the Union’s desire to continue fighting. To them, it was easy because the South was fighting with the aim of maintaining their lifestyle and economy. The North, on the other hand, were fighting for their own beliefs.
After the end of war, what followed was reconstruction. What the two regions had in common was the fact that the two regions wanted to stand up on their feet again. A lot of property had been destroyed and what the people wanted was to overcome all these challenges. Though they didn’t start working together directly, they both expected a bright future. A future ruled by a great leader and this called for a presidential reconstruction. Though the southern individuals viewed themselves superior to the Northern before the war, they had to work hand in hand to ensure the country was not affected by their war.
Work Cited
Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!. 1st ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2014. Print.
