The Civil War And The Antebellum Years From 1845-1861

By the year of 1860, the North and the South was developed into extremely different sections. There was opposing social, economic, and political points of view, starting back into colonial periods, and it slowly drove the two regions farther in separate directions. The two sections tried to force its point of view on the nation as a whole. Even though negotiations had kept the Union together for many years, in 1860 the condition was unstable. The presidential election of Abraham Lincoln was observed by the South as a risk to slavery and many believe it initiated the war.

Many causes led to the Civil War. This all happened around the mid 1800s. It was a conflict between the Northern and Southern states. Both sides had their own view on slavery, and their separate views caused contentions between the two. Both had different views on whether to expand or stop slavery growth to the West, or have slavery at all.

In the 19th century there was a popular doctrine or belief that the westward expansion of the United States not only could happen, but that it was destined to stretch from coast to coast. For awhile, the nation’s leaders were unable to resolve the divisive issue of slavery. This belief was called Manifest Destiny and it eventually provided a larger stage for the growing conflict over slavery in America.

The American Antebellum period nurtured the disunity between primarily the North and the South that led to the Civil War. Despite relying on each other for things like cotton, the differences in social ideology and morality were too great to provide a completely united country. Industrially, the South was not as advanced as the North and relied on the North for certain things like tools.

Manifest destiny was the belief that God wanted the United States to own all of North America (Hall 301). But John O’Sullivan really only envisioned that white men were the only ones privileged enough to receive liberty (Hal 301). The Manifest Destiny was caused by the American people it gave them a sense of superiority over the other peoples who lived in North America. The declaration of the Manifest destiny wanted to expand the U.S. territory over the whole of North America and to extend and enhance its political, social, and economic influences. Eventually the United States won the war it had ended on February 2, 1848 when Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty added an additional 525,000 square miles to United

Cotton was the king of the South. It was bringing in large amounts of money as the textile industry in the North grew. Slavery was vital to the economic well-being of the South, and when the North began to question the “peculiar institution” of the South the wall of civility between the two sectionalized areas began to crumble. Due to the growing issue of slavery in the 1850s, the United States of America was in a state of total disarray and turmoil. The tension that had always existed between the North and South over the matter of slavery was no longer ignorable. As the United States expanded to the West, the status of slavery in the new states erupted in a violence that could no longer be controlled by sectionalism. The peace treaties that had worked in the past became Band-Aids over stab wounds. Southern states began to leave the United States of America to form the Confederate States of America and war was declared as the South fired onto the forts of the North. The Civil War was caused directly by the issue of slavery; the fugitive slave act in the Compromise of 1850, Dred Scott v. Sandford, and Bleeding Kansas prove that slavery was the key factor in the eruption of the nation.

In the early to mid 19th century, the country was at a major divide. Slavery was still allowed federally, but many northern states had decided to outlaw it in their own region. With new states coming into the union, each side hoped to gain control of the government and attempt to push their agenda. The civil war was a direct result of a north-south political and cultural divide exemplified with arguments abouts which states could be allowed into the union with slavery.

In the mid-1800's, many events occurred that increased sectional tension between the Northern and Southern states of the Union. These tensions ultimately resulted in the outbreak of civil war. One thing in particular that is considered to be a source of sectional discord is the U.S. Constitution. However the Constitution itself was not a source of sectional tension that caused the failure of the Union. The failure erupted generally from the issue of slavery. combination of the people in general and the differences in economic styles that lead to the downfall. Poor political decisions such as the Kansas Nebraska Act, lead to bad decisions which worsened the tensions of the union. The economic differences ultimately lead to the Civil War

Finally, the social issues in the United States brought about by westward expansion really contributed to start of the Civil War. Proposed in 1846 by David Wilmot, The Wilmot Proviso was a proposition by abolitionists that proposed that there should be no slavery in any of the land included in the Mexican Secession. This was a bold move by the northern abolitionists, and though this wasn’t passed, it showed that the slavery issue was at the forefront of social issues on the western frontier. It was a

There were several events that lead to the American Civil War. The Northern states wanted African Americans to be free from slavery, while the Southern states wanted to continue owning them. The Northern states didn’t need slaves for their economy to thrive, as opposed to the Southern states, where their economy relied heavily on the slave’s free labor. Both sides also argued on whether or not the newly acquired states should be free states or slave states, but since the North’s population growth exceeded the South’s, they had more power in the government. The Northern sates had most of the electoral votes and that

The Manifest Destiny was a popular idea during the 1840s. Many people thought that the U.S. was destined to stretch from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. As a part of the U.S. journey to achieve the Manifest Destiny, many people wanted the annexation of Texas and California. While, Mexico did not want to give Texas or California to the U.S.; over time. These territorial disagreements between the U.S. and Mexico started to become a stimulus for war. When the U.S. started to gain territory from Mexico, the issue of slavery became more frequent because lawmakers argued over whether the adopted territory allowed for slavery or not. Although the idea of the Manifest Destiny sparked a wave of patriotism among Americans, territorial expansion ultimately divided the U.S. between advocates and opponents of slavery. Americans not only wanted the land for economic purposes but they also felt that they needed to teach Mexico a lesson; these ideas were used as the basis of unity during the mid-19th century.

In 1861, a Civil War broke out between the Union States and Confederate States of America. Many influences led to this battle, but there were 3 main disagreements that initiated the Civil War. The debate in the North and South about slavery’s cruelty and ethicality was a primary cause of the war. Another main cause was the fairness of the decision of the state’s rights and the fairness of the rights that the states had. In addition to the other 2 controversies, the allowing and wanting for states to disjoin the Union was another cause.

In 1861, a horrific war began. Nobody had any idea that this war would become the deadliest war in American history. It wasn’t a regular war, it was a civil war opposing the Union in the North and the Confederate States in the South.. The Civil War cost many people’s lives on the battlefield and beyond. In addition it cost an extreme amount of money for the nation which possibly could have been avoided if the war had turned to happen a little differently.

In 1860, the world 's greatest nation was locked in Civil War. The war divided the country between the North and South. There were many factors that caused this war, but the main ones were the different interpretations of the Constitution by the North and South, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the arrival of

Sectional conflict between the North and South was the very platform of the birth of the Civil War. Slavery was a prominent dispute that played a large role in the differences throughout the U.S. at this time, but there were other causes as well including economic and social differences and the election of Abraham Lincoln. In the midst of various events in the 1850s, it was the southern secession that began the true separation of the Union and the Confederacy, which showed the reality and quickness of the arrival of the Civil War in the United States.