Civil War Causes

Causes of the American Civil War The American Civil War was a war fought from 1861 to 1865, after the United States split up sometime from 1860 to1861 (Causes of The Civil War (3) 1). The war was fought over secession; secession or withdrawal is when a population with significant possessions is revoked from an established single country and a founded separate government (Secession 2). In The Civil War this meant that the Southern states disaffiliated themselves from The Union and proclaimed themselves independently as what is known as The Confederate States of America (Secession Definition 1). The secession of The Civil War was caused by many reasons including, but not limited, to slavery, state rights, sectionalism, slave power and free
soil, and Lincoln’s election. One of the most apparent reasons for The Civil War secession was slavery. The main focus of the slavery issue was its upcoming future. Since there were many agricultural estates in the South a great deal of slaves were needed, (there were about four million to be exact) so they worked as slaves in the south. Although slaves were desperately needed to complete the typical farm work, not many slave owners existed; in fact, they were just a small fraction of the population. Of course, if a resident did happen to be a slave owner their position in the social class would raise, and since slaves were in high demand their value rose; along with them the land and cotton values decreased. In the North slaves were not as essential because of the different landscape and environment, so unmistakably slavery was attempted to be put to an end (Causes Of The Civil War 3 and 4). Clearly the North and the South were complete opposites and so The Civil War had begun to begin. Another underlying cause of The Civil War was the states’ rights. Many of the states, such as the South states, thought their interests/concerns should come before the National Governments, so they evidently believed in nullification; nullification is the right to make the decision on whether or not a law passes by Congress was constitutional or not. If it was found that the law went against the United States’ Constitution, they would then nullify the law. On the other hand, the majority of the Northerners thought that the Federal Government should have the most over any other government, like the states individual government. With this in consideration the North disputed that only the United States Supreme Court could proclaim a law unconstitutional. With all this being known, it could be inferred that slavery and state’ rights, in a way, cross over each other because the Southerners wanted to leave The Union, but in order to leave they had to have a power higher or equal to the National Government, otherwise it could quite possibly be considered an illegal act (Causes…States' Rights 13-15, and 17). Sectionalism was also regarded as a cause of the secession for which The Civil War began; sectionalism is allegiance to the interests of one's own territory or section of the nation, rather than to the nation altogether. A great example of sectionalism would be the North and South. The problem with the North and the South was that each of those regions only saw the issues that specifically affected only them and not as a whole nation which ends up developing a dilemma within a dilemma. The top three major contrasts between the North and South were tariffs, economy, and population (Causes…States' Rights 5 and 6) (Stampp 63-66).
Beginning with tariffs, which are imported goods that have taxes, the Northerners were very favorable about them because it offered a lot of protection against foreign opposition. The Southerners were not in a favor these at all because they traded a lot outside of North America and they did not feel that it was necessary for them to pay more money just to protect the Northerners. In result, the southerners did not export a lot of their goods (such as cotton) because the southerners pretty much disregarded the tariffs as much as they could (Causes…States' Rights 7 and 9) (Causes of The Civil War (2) 3).
Secondly, the economy was also a part of the issues the North and South had.
The Northerners environment was much less warm and the land was not agriculturally friendly, so they did not actually need slaves; that is why they used factories. As mentioned earlier, the Northerners did not even want slaves; they took the measures to pass laws against slavery. Now, the South is a very warm environment with a tremendously agricultural land. When one is living in a farm-like land and/or owns a plantation one must acquire workers; in the time beings place, the African American slaves would be the workers. As discussed previously, the North and South completely counterpart each other (Causes…States' Rights 10 and 11). Thirdly the population contributed to the dilemmas, as well. The North had an approximated population of twenty-two million people, and the South had approximately nine million people; furthermore, the more citizens one has in their region the more voting power that region has… big advantage (Causes… States’ Rights 12) (Causes of The American Civil
War).
Going back to the reasons of the secession, slave power and free soil comes to mind. What happened with the slave power and free soil is very well connected which is why they are put together. The Northerners were insistent on free soil, especially since there was new land in the west becoming available. This land could go to the yeoman farmers; yeoman farmers were English farmers who owned their own land and could pretty much do whatever they wanted with it and grow whatever they felt like growing. The Northerners did not think it would be fair if the land went to the wealthy slave owners from the south just so they could gain more political power while they would end up with the marginal lands. Unfortunately the Northerners were defeated, and the Southerners got to keep the west side of the territory. (Catton 102-111).
Lastly, Lincoln’s election was one of the last straws towards secession.
There were many attempts made to make well-rounded compromises but eventually they all turned out to be unsuccessful. Southerners assumed that Lincoln would end the growth of slavery until there were no slaves left, and so as this was a possibility, seven southern (slave) states had already seceded before Lincoln even became the President of the United States of America; if they had not done this they were going to face an everlasting, minor faction. This would then be giving the Northern states more power (not what the Southern slave states wanted). (Catton 219, 220,
221-222).
The American Civil War was undoubtedly one of the most important wars the United States has ever fought. The American Civil War was fought for numerous reasons but most importantly because of the secession of the Southern slave states form the Confederate states; however, there were many minor and major factors of the secession, which was the base of the American Civil War, that took a quintessential role in the war.