The US Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865. The American Civil war was also referred to as War Between the States. The war resulted in over 618,000 casualties in total. The causes of the war are associated to tension that built up early in the American history. There are several foundations that led to the American Civil War. Some of the causes include; the social and economic differences between the South and the North, the Federal versus the States rights, the fight between states that proposed slavery and states that were against slavery, the election of the president, Abraham Lincoln and growth of the Abolition Movement among others.
In 1860, President Abraham Lincoln was elected. The southerners were not comfortable with the government and they had the perception that if they stayed in the United States of America, the government would communicate to them what to do and the North would be in control. As a result some states in the South decided to secede from the United States. 7 states in the American South removed themselves from the Union in the middle of December 1860 and March 1861. South Carolina was the 1st state to abandon the Union and create their own nation called Confederate States of America. Within a period of four months six more states seceded. These federal states were Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi. After some time the states of Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia later joined the new nation. Jefferson Davis was voted as the president of the nation by the people from these states. The northern federal states were denoted to as the Union.
Use your promo and get a custom paper on
"The Origin of the Civil War".
Abraham Lincoln’s main aim was to consolidate the political power and not to abolish slavery. These states decided to leave the United States mainly because they wanted to protect preserve their slave rights. The southern states were not in agreement with the North on slavery. The northern states needed slavery to be abolished. For the Southern states the war was to fight for their slavery rights while for the Northern states the war was fought to restore unity in the nation. The South believed that the North wanted to interfere with the westward expansion of slavery. Shots were fired from Fort Sumter on 12th April 1961. This is what led to the American civil war.
Another reason as to why the Southern states seceded from the United States was due to the structure of the government. The North was continuously trying to change the constitution. The North wanted the senate to be elected by a peoples’ popular vote and abolish the senate election by the state legislatures. The South was more interested in state sovereignty and the North was interested in the federal government having the ability to regulate and monitor the internal affairs of the states. Due to conflict of interest and disagreement, this is another reason that led to the American Civil War. Abraham Lincoln could not let the South leave without a fight because he wanted to maintain unity among the states and not to separate them.
- Abrahamson, James L. The Men of Secession and Civil War, 1859-1861. Wilmington, Del: SR Books, 2000. Print.Page 5
- Ayers, Edward L, Gary W. Gallagher, and Andrew J. Torget. Crucible of the Civil War: Virginia from Secession to Commemoration. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2006. Internet resource.Page 17
- Bensel, Richard F. Yankee Leviathan: The Origins of Central State Authority in America, 1859-1877. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Print.Page 8
- Beringer, Richard E. Why the South Lost the Civil War. University of Georgia Press, 1991. Print. Page 73
- Bernath, Michael T. Confederate Minds: The Struggle for Intellectual Independence in the Civil War South. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010. Internet resource.Page 33
- Boritt, G S, and Robert V. Bruce. Lincoln, the War President: The Gettysburg Lectures. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992 .Page 18
- Bowman, Shearer D. At the Precipice: Americans North and South During the Secession Crisis. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010.Page 38.
- Denson, John V. The Costs of War: America’s Pyrrhic Victories. New Brunswick, N.J: Transaction Publishers, 1997. Print. Page 15
- Ford, Lacy. A Companion to the Civil War and Reconstruction. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2011. Internet resource.Page 30
- Graham, Cole B. Thesouth Carolina State Constitution: A Reference Guide. Westport [u.a.: Praeger, 2007. Print. Page 16
- Kennedy, James R, and Walter D. Kennedy. The South Was Right!Gretna, La: Pelican, 1994. Print.Page 216
- McClintock, Russell. Lincoln and the Decision for War: The Northern Response to Secession. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008. Page 3
- McCurry, Stephanie. Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2010. Internet resource. Page 53
- Wakelyn, Jon L. Southern Pamphlets on Secession: November 1860 – April 1861. Chapel Hill [u.a.: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1996. Print. Page 78
- Woodworth, Steven E, and Kenneth J. Winkle. Atlas of the Civil War. Oxford [u.a.: Oxford Univ. Press, 2004. Page 66
