preview

Civil War Research Paper

Good Essays
Open Document

The American Civil War, fought between 1860 and 1865 was one of the bloodiest conflicts in the history of warfare. At the end of the war, more than 600,000 soldiers were dead or wounded. The institution of slavery was ended and the United States was changed forever. Several causes have been suggested for the conflict, including the disagreement over the institution of slavery, economic differences between the north and south and a difference in how the Constitution was to be interpreted. Slavery, however, is the key issue that lies at the heart of the conflict. Slavery has existed as long as cultures have warred with each other. Dating back to the oldest civilizations, the use of war prisoners as unpaid, forced labor has long been part of …show more content…

The most important crop was cotton, which was needed in the textile mills in the north. Slavery was tied into the southern economy because the crops that the southern economy was based on required a lot of manpower to cultivate. As time passed, banks in the north came to dominate the United States economy. The south soon found itself cash poor. Northern industries and banks became the economic center of the United States. The south was forced to rely on the north economically. Northern banks issued loans to southern planters, and northern industry supplied household goods to the south, which the south was obligated to buy from northern merchants, as tariffs – taxes on imported goods – made it less economically practical for the south to import such goods from any other source. The passage of these tariffs had been a contentious issue several times in the United States ' Congress. A high tariff, the north argued, would be good for the country, as it made American goods cheaper than those imported from Europe. These price controls encouraged consumers to buy American goods and therefore would help the American economy grow. The south argued that such tariffs made it difficult for the south to buy goods from any other, cheaper, source. By the mid 1800 's, planters in the southern part of the United States found themselves indebted to northern banks and forced to buy consumer goods from northern suppliers. The south soon saw its limited liquid capital traveling

Get Access