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The American Civil War : The United States

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The American Civil War, known in the United States as simply the Civil War as well as by other sectional names, was a civil war fought from 1861 to 1865 to determine the survival of the Union or independence for the Confederacy. Of the 34 states that existed in January 1861, seven Southern slave states individually declared their secession from the United States and went on to form the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy, often simply called the South, grew to include eleven states, although they claimed thirteen states and additional western territories. The Confederacy was never recognized diplomatically by a foreign country. The states that remained loyal were known as the Union or the North. The war had its origin in the fractious issue of slavery, especially the expansion of slavery into the western territories. After four years of combat, which left over 600,000 Union and Confederate soldiers dead and destroyed much of the South 's infrastructure, the Confederacy collapsed and slavery was abolished. Then began the Reconstruction and the processes of restoring national unity and guaranteeing civil rights to the freed slaves.
The American Civil War was one of the earliest true industrial wars. Railroads, the telegraph, steamships, and mass-produced weapons were employed extensively. The mobilization of civilian factories, mines, shipyards, banks, transportation and food supplies all foreshadowed the impact of industrialization in World War I. It remains the

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