American civil war 1861-1865

American civil war 1861-1865

Introduction

During the early 1860s, North America was highly industrialized while the south heavily relied on agriculture and thus upheld slavery as a vital institution. The end of the Mexican-American war saw the USA acquire new territories embedded into slavery an aspect that the northerners were willing to curtail. Eleven of the southern states thus seceded to form a confederation that would protect the institution of slavery hence provoking a civil war. This paper addresses the essence with special reference to the urgent need for both cohesion and development of the USA after the war highlighting the outcomes.

Essence of a strong central government

The newly formed union aimed at diversifying development amongst the highly industrialized north and the war trodden south. The system of administration in place needed to provide a platform for the “contrabands” personal development void of further slavery exploitation. The abolitionist strongholds made up of capitalist slave owners however needed to be put in control to diminish any future incubation of slave trade. A strong central government would also ensure that the devastated south picks up in an economic rush to catch up with the north. A great lesson was besides learned in a case where states legislation overpowered federal legislation in what would end up threatening national integration. Virginia state enactment, for instance, saw a controversy that gave rise to West Virginia.

Necessity for rapid development of the nation

The congress was forced to print money to supply both food and ammunition to the Union troops a factor that led to inflation. The economic situation in the south was also debilitated by a long term curtail of sales of cotton in the global market. Attempts had thus to be undertaken to revive the economic situation across the country to revive the lost economic sustenance. A strategy more so needed to be adopted to eliminate the long cycles of debts that held African-Americans’ captive to the southern slave owners. It was evident that cotton would no longer be a reliable source of capital thus prompt strategies towards uniform industrialization would be the alternative avenue for free labor.

Reasons for the need for rapid development of the nation

The south acted as the main field for the war leading to enormous destruction despite having vast land. Destruction of infrastructures further made it difficult to supply both food and industrial products to the north hence an urge for fast development. Both the industries and populace faced food and material shortages due to massive destruction. The economy was also devastated to inflation thus a need for prompt measures to revive the majority of the systems. Approximately 2 million lives were also lost a factor that led to the loss of experts thus the need for the development of academic and research institutions to train new professionals.

Outcomes of attempts to develop the nation

Emancipation resulted in African-Americans living in extreme poverty due to dependence on sharecropping despite freedom from slavery. Farmers in the north experience labor shortages leading to mechanization to increase food production to sustain the population. Newer tariffs were also put across to protect American firms from competition from Europe thus extreme federal government interference in the market. As a measure to offset inflation the congress adopted greenbacks which were eventually countered by federal currency to stimulate rapid economic growth. The government eventually found itself in preference for economic elites a factor that intensified corruption as reported on 24^th September 1869 black Friday.

Conclusion

The American civil war was provoked by the cessation of eleven southern states embedded in slavery making the Union government treat them as insurgents. The effects of the war, however, saw inflation that made the congress adopt the federal currency system. Measures also ought to be undertaken to revive the south whose agricultural background was debilitated. The fled African-American slaves also lavished in poverty due to emancipation.