causes of the American Civil war
Introduction
The American Civil war took place in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The war is described to be the worst of its kind to take place in American soil because it claimed lives of more than hundreds of thousands of people and the country was left in ruins. The major causes of this war were economic and political conflicts (1). This causes are in conflict as to which was the original cause of the war. These economic cause was the issue of slave trade and the political cause was the issue of westward expansion. This paper is going to review the two causes of the American Civil war.
Historical Debate
The debate over the abolishment of slave trade is viewed as the major catalyst of the civil war. The major source of income for the southern people was from large scale farming of tobacco and cotton (2). This type of farming was heavily dependent on slaves because of how large scale it was. On the other hand, the northern people had shifted from farming to industrialization and this nature of work did not require slaves. The north had industry and manufacturing was well established and farming was only carried out in small scale. The northerners were pushing for abolition of slave trade as they believed it was evil and wrong (3). This was a major source of conflict as the southerners were largely dependent on slaves for their farm work. The people of the South saw this rebellion against slaves as a threat. The mix up of slavery with state rights created tension between the North and the south and the war broke out.
The other cause of the cause of the American civil war was a political reason. As the United states continued to expand westward, the power of the newly acquired state was divided between the north and the south (4). However, there was tension among the southern people since they believed that they would lose power and lose all their rights to the northerners. As such, the southerners made each new state a battleground for acquisition of power. There was also great tension when Abraham Lincoln, a northerner, got elected as the president of the United states. Abraham Lincoln was on the fore front of the campaign against slavery. He managed to get elected even without being on the ballot of the 10 southern states (5). The southerners were not happy because they felt that Abraham Lincoln would abolish slave trade completely.
These two causes are similar in that the major cause was the feud between the Northerners and the Southerners be it in economic or political. The first reason was that the northerners had found a new source of income that did not require slave labor and they therefore viewed slavery as evil and wrong. The southerners on the other hand were still dependent on farming and largely dependent on slave labor on their large scale farming. There was therefore conflict since one region wanted slavery abolished while the other wantedhttps://studygroom.com/the-united-states-is-home-to-a-wireless-carrier-oligopoly/maintained. The other reason was the division of power of the newly acquired states whereby the southerners felt threatened and they resolved to fighting in order to gain control of the new states. They were further agitated when Abraham Lincoln who was a northerner was elected as the United states president even without their votes.
Conclusion
This two causes have shed light on the major cause of the American Civil war. This issues are still revenant today as Americans get to know their history. Also, there are other civil wars that start because of reasons similar to those of the American Civil war and they can solve their feuds as Americans did. Furthermore, people learn from it and avoid similar mistakes in future.