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Causes of the American Civil War Essay

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The Civil War was caused by a myriad of conflicting pressures, principles, and prejudices, fueled by sectional differences and pride, and set into motion by a most unlikely set of political events. From the colonial period in America where the institution of slavery began, through the period of the revolution whereby blood was shed to validate the notion that all men were created equal (yet slavery existed in all thirteen colonies), to the era of the Civil War itself, it is undoubtedly clear that the main causative factor of the war was slavery itself. With that said, it is the objective of this brief essay to shed light on three of the causative factors that led to the Civil War while subsequently considering the question of whether or …show more content…

Primarily, the north was concerned that the newly acquired western states of California, Arizona, and New Mexico from the Mexican War (mid 1800's), would become slave states and in turn would make it both politically and economically harder to contend with. Economically speaking, the northerners didn't favor the idea of further competition against slave labor, while politically speaking, the north was also concerned with the idea of an unbalanced legislature whereby the south would be the majority represented by slave-owning states. Therefore, as we come to a second cause of the Civil War, it is evidently clear that the socio-economic cause about to be discussed is directly related and consumed by enveloping factor of slavery. By the brink of the war (1860), the north and the south had become two disparate regions. The differences in political, social and economic views amongst the two regions continued to grow from the colonial period until the outbreak of the war (which served as a culminating expression of the supreme tension between the two areas). Despite the fact that each region attempted to impose their points of view on the other, compromise could only keep the country at bay for so long. Perhaps another cause of the war (as perhaps most widely viewed by the

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