Social Changes After The Civil War

The nature of warfare changed as a result of the Civil War due to various factors such as, industrialization, development of new technologies, and economic impact of the North and South. Some of these factors had short-term and long-term consequences on the North and the South affecting their land, people, and economy. Short-term consequences consisted of the country being in hazard, no one knew where to live, and blacks were escaping to the north and lost connections with their families. A long-term consequence following the Civil War was African Americans were free after hundreds of years under slavery. Exports also increased because of the Civil War going from thirty percent to ninety-eight percent.
The industrial growth had a major effect on American life. After the Civil War, machines replaced hand labor as the means of manufacturing. This increased the production capacity greatly. Railways were created and they could distribute good further than before. Inventors also created new products the public wanted, and the businesses made them large amounts. The industrial growth centered mainly on the North while the South trailed behind the rest of the country economically.
The main change in technology during the Civil War was the nature of the armaments.
Among the most important was the introduction of repeating weapons. During 1835, Samuel Colt patented a repeating pistol (the revolver) but the repeating rifle was more important for military purposes, which was introduced in 1860 by Oliver Winchester. Advanced canons and artillery were also important and they were results of earlier advances in iron and steel technology. All these new improvements helped the North during the Civil War, but the railways helped them even more. The railways were used to transport the troops and supplies to where they needed to go faster than horse or wagon. It could mobilize millions of soldiers and transport them to the
front.
At the beginning of the Civil War, the North had a population of 22,100,000 (71%) and the South had a population of 9,100,000 (29%). By 1864, the North had ninety percent of the population with 28,800,000 while the South only had 3,000,000. Slavery also was negligible in the North after the Civil War ended but the South still had 1,900,000. The cotton bales also went up for the North from negligible to 300,000 and the South went from 4,500,000 to negligible. Lastly, exports from the North increased by sixty-eight percent and the South went from seventy percent to negligible.
If the Civil War was won by the South, the United States would be divided into five or six countries, not just the United States and the Confederacy. Texas would have seceded from the Confederacy, and would have become a sovereign republic for the second time in its history. California also would have become a separate country. An alliance of Western States would have formed the sixth country, which would have involved the present day Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Oregon, and Colorado. This Western Confederation would have failed, however, and would have joined the Union in the 1930s, at the height of the great Depression.