Assess The Causes And Consequences Of The Civil War

In 1861, a Civil War broke out in the United States when the South declared their independence from the Union. There is a great amount of reasons that people can argue how the Civil War was started. However, what most people don’t understand, is that most of the events leading up to the Civil War were related to slavery. Slavery was the core of the North and South’s conflict, which led to a very vicious feud.

During the early nineteenth century the United States began to split, but at the middle of the century people views started to become more concrete and so separation in the Union became more drastic. From 1850 to 1861 it was apparent that the union was separating into the North and the South. The Constitution played a major role in the separation that was occurring. Through sectional favoritism of bits and pieces of the Constitution and through ideas that were left out of it, the Constitution led to sectional discord and nearly the failure of the union.

Slavery, as Abraham Lincoln often noted, was the root cause of the Civil War. Tensions over slavery dated back to the contradictory nature of the American Revolution of 1776 that resulted in a republic simultaneously committed to freedom for whites and bondage for blacks (Barney W., p. 61). Within years North and South reached the point at which compromise was not possible. At that time Civil War had been started.

     Did you know America’s bloodiest battle fought on their own soil was the Civil War? The Civil War was fought on American soil between the northern states and the southern states. Many causes provoked the war, which would affect the nation for decades to come. Slavery, the Missouri Compromise, and John Brown’s attack on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, were some of the many causes. In turn hundreds of thousands of soldiers died, the South’s economy was devastated, and the northern ideals flourished.

There were many long-term causes and short term causes that aided and pushed forward the impending Civil War. The short term causes, however, were the most effective because they happened quickly and completely divided the nation in half. The causes were not only rapid and influential, but they were also all the consequences of the prior, creating an exponential rampage of divergence which led the country straight to Civil War. These short term causes were (in order of first to following): The Kansas Nebraska Act, the rise of the Republican Party, and finally Lincoln’s election.

The social and economic divisions between the north and south, eventually led to a civil war.However what could have become the swift end of it?When going through the causes and effects of the civil war, they’ve could've been easily solved by just making peace with each other or came up with another to make peace.Continuing to explaining what could have been stopped and saved in the following paragraphs.

What were the short-term and long-term effects of the Civil War? The Civil War produced many short-term and long-term effects. For example, the struggle of Freedmen and Reconstruction shortly after the Civil War was addressed with many short term solutions like, the Freedmen’s Bureau, the 10% Plan. and the Wade-Davis Bill. There also times like, the battle over Reconstruction, where the pure tension and disagreements throws the U.S. into pure chaos with the assassination of Lincoln and not much gets done due to the back and forth arguments between Johnson and Republicans. Although, the end of Reconstruction presents a myriad of long term effects which will radically change America like, the KKK and Plessy V. Ferguson promoting racism and the election of Hayes in 1876. From 1863-1896, the United States was completely divided and was going through Reconstruction in an attempt to unite the North and South after the Civil War to prevent other countries from attacking America. After the Civil War, the struggle to rebuild the Nation, the battle over Reconstruction, and its inevitable end produced a plethora of long-term and short-term effects which would change America forever.

The causes of the Civil War were complex and have been controversial since the country began. Some causes include; states’ rights, economics, and slavery. The most recognizable and popular cause is slavery. The freeing of the slaves was an important moral issue at the time and one of the greatest causes of the civil war. "It was only by carefully avoiding the moral issue involved in slavery that Northerners and Southerners could meet on any common ground." (Goldston, 79). The time came in which our great country would finally address the moral issue of slavery. Although there are many different causes to the American Civil War, the main cause was slavery because other causes are rooted in the issue of slavery.

They say there is some other reason, but when you take a good look at the facts it becomes clear that there most certainly is not. Slavery was unquestionably the largest cause of the civil war, for both sides, and there are large amounts of evidence to support this. Before Lincon was elected in 1860, a newspaper in South Carolina wrote about "the extinction of slavery," and stated that anyone not ready to, "surrender the institution," must act. The vote to secede was 169 to 0 in South Carolina, 166 to 7 in Texas, 84 to 15 in Mississippi. In no Southern state was the vote

Before the war the south had around one million slaves, to do their chores for them. The south was dependent on slaves so, they were not about to give up so easily when Lincoln got elected. That is when they seceded, southerners could not take the risk of Lincoln taking away their slaves. There was only one cause of the civil war and that was slavery, because of the south's “need” for slavery.. All of the events leading up to the civil war were also causes of the war occurring. But all of those events happened because of slavery. Without the Southerners and the Northerners different views on slavery there would not have been a war at all.

"The tragic ‘fireball in the night’ imagined by Jefferson had finally rung. The Missouri Compromise had failed. Proslavery and antislavery civilians clashed in the streets and took up arms. Thousands of Northerners were willing to die for their beliefs.

Generally, it is thought to be the South’s fault for causing the Civil War. Contrary to popular belief, the Civil War was mainly provoked by the North; through using the federal government to overtake the South, removing slavery which would destroy Southern economy, and creating the moral issue of slavery. The North was the primary reason for the start of a war that ripped our country apart.

The costs of the Civil War were enormous. The total number of military causalities on both sides exceeded 1 million. More men died in the Civil War than in all other American wars combined until Vietnam. However, the Civil War impacted the United States well beyond just deaths. The Civil war brought fundamental alterations in the life of the nation, changing the economy, the political landscape, as well as ways of life.

Did you know that in the Civil War, America lost the most men ever? After four years and over 600,000 American lives, the Union (North) prevailed in wearing down and forcing the Confederacy (South) to surrender. Eli Whitney’s cotton gin, the Missouri Compromise, and the Dred Scott case contributed greatly to the Civil War. After the Civil War, the Southern economy was devastated with millions of homeless, while the northern economy boomed.

This essay will deal with the causes, events and consequences of the American Civil War which happened in the second half of the 19th century (1861 – 1865). I will argue the fact how the War meant a turning point of American democracy and its social structures, since many years, even decades after the War's ending, the society was still very far away from being able to denote itself as 'modern' or 'racially equal'. The War, and especially the concept of slavery and its emancipation, as one of the most significant events in both American and world history has been used as a common motif in literature and cinematography, therefore I will enumerate and shortly describe the modern adaptations of the period related to the War.