Civil War, Edward L. Ayers

In this paper, “The American Civil War, Emancipation, and Reconstruction on the World Stage” the author, Edward L. Ayers, is analyzing the events that unfolded and led up to the Civil War so we can clearly see how one thing lead to another. However, at the time they occurred it was not so easy to see. Ayers view on this subject is that this war changed the face of the world. Everything that the war had brought about with the end of slavery being the most prominent also produced other outcomes just as world changing. The use of warfare would be reinvented and the political and economic outcomes all helped set a new world stage.
As children are taught in grade school, the Civil War happened because the North wanted to outlaw slavery, and the South did not. The newly elected Republican Party had thwarted the spread of slavery; however, the South was still very dependent on it due to their labor intensive crops. The United States was not united, but rather a divided country. The 1860 Presidential election, in which Lincoln won, triggered the start of states seceding. By the time Lincoln took office in March of 1861 seven states had seceded from the union (). The eyes of the world were on America as the Civil War was played out; both sides, the North and South, appealed to the world. In the North, Lincoln says that this “embraces more than the date of these United States. It presents to the whole family of man, the question, whether a constitutional republic or democracy . . . can, or cannot maintain its territorial integrity” (Lincoln). The Struggle, was for “a vast future,” (Lincoln) a struggle to give all men “a fair chance in the race of life” (Lincoln).
Abraham Lincoln made the point, to give all men “a fair chance in the race of life” (Lincoln) that the Civil War matters in one way or another to all people and represented the viewpoint of the North. The South expressed their position to have the right to determine their own destiny. America being still a very young nation with a new type of government that governed with laws, verses a monarchy or religion. The eyes of all were upon the conflict. Regardless of who came out the victor, how this new country played out this experiment, would have lasting effects on the entire whole. The Civil War brought more to the table than just deciding slavery, it would show if the experimental government could actually govern and be held together by law (Edward L. Ayers, The American Civil War, Emancipation, and Reconstruction on the world stage).
The North’s diplomacy in the United States was fragile leading up to the Civil War for all sides and parties involved. The Republican Party had come about and had replaced the Whig party. With this the new party the North and South were further split. The South had no Republicans, and the South did not want to stay in the Union if a Northerner became president. With the new Republican Party taking the Government by storm, the ideas of the party were nothing new, therefore further splitting the ties between the North and South. With the Election of 1860 and Abraham Lincoln this was the last straw for the south.
Lincoln seemed to recognize that if the Union had addressed the South as separate nation then the world could have chosen sides. The war would then have been moved from a civil war to a war of a different scale with outside help coming in for the South from the French and British. Even though they weren’t recognized as their own nation, the South sought aid from Britain and France via blackmail on their product of cotton, but were unsuccessful. Instead the European manufactures saw the events unfolding and built up a stockpiles of cotton while other nations became producers themselves (Edward L. Ayers, The American Civil War, Emancipation, and Reconstruction on the world stage). This left the South alone to fight their battle.
As the sides fought their values out on the field many factors went into how they maneuvered, survived and died for their cause. Firstly, they employed industrial age new weapons and tactics on the battlefield. Napoleon’s war in Europe had embraced new tactics and while in the industrial age these new tactics coupled with new weapons made for a very high casualty rate. This led into the second aspect of how they would survive the Civil War. The killing power may have increased dramatically, but the medical aspect of dealing with the wounded was not progressing as fast as the weapons. Casualties and losses for the North and South were over half a million soldiers with most resulting from diseases, due to inadequate treatment and lack of medical tools. Lastly, both sides saw the war coming and each side prepared differently to move their troops. The North built more railroads and telegraph lines (Edward L. Ayers, The American Civil War, Emancipation, and Reconstruction on the world stage), while the south with fewer railroads felt that their waterways would be sufficient to provide transportation and built new ironclad ships. Each had their strengths and weaknesses. The railroads helped the North to mobilize troops quickly up until they reach the end of the line, but then troops had to march to their destination. In the south the waterways were effective at some port cities, but didn’t help much beyond. (Edward L. Ayers, The American Civil War, Emancipation, and Reconstruction on the world stage). The deciding factor seemed to be when the North decided to enlist the help of African Americans. With this nearly 200,000 African Americans coming to the aid of the Union it tipped the war in favor of the North and the war was over. President Lincoln felt the need to write the Emancipation Proclamation, therefore freeing the all slaves. The United States and Haiti are the only two countries in which slavery ended so suddenly.
With the North winning the war, slavery was abolished, and the experimental government had succeeded in keeping the country together. The American Civil War, accomplished great things, shaping not only our Nation but the world. Slavery had ended, warfare had improved due to the industrial age, and political and economic changes occurred worldwide. There was no one who was left unaffected by this war, in the United or in the world. The United States had held together and had preserved the Union, but not without a high cost to be paid. The difficulties that were faced during the war left the nation in need of healing. The next step would be to bring the Union back together, which is the next page in History, the Reconstruction age.

Bibliography
Edward, Ayers. "The American Civil War, Emancipation, and Reconstruction on the World Stage." American Civil War, Emancipation, and Reconstruction on the World Stage. 01 2006: 54. Print.