American Civil War: causes and consequences

The American civil war or Civil War It is one of the most important wars in the history of mankind, not only because it is the civil war of one of the great powers in history, but also for their important role in the change over slavery that the world. To understand the reasons and the weight of this conflict in this lesson from a Teacher we must talk about the causes and consequences of the American Civil war.

The tensions between the states of the South and the North of the North American nation that gave rise to the conflict were very numerous and relevant, being many the causes that started a war that would change the United States for forever. To understand the war below we must list the following causes of the American Civil War.

Slavery

The main cause and best known to the general public was the slavery, being a key economic factor in the southern states and especially after the independence of the United States. Northern ideals based on equality caused slavery to be abolished in most countries. northern states, but the southerners were not willing to do without the labor that so much wealth gave.

The differences between north and south

The northern and southern states seemed totally different nations, having a series of differences that made relations very complicated. Southerners based their economy on agriculture thanks to slavery, while Northerners had a much more versatile economy based on the union between agriculture and industry. The economy influenced the society and politics of the regions, being the southerners defenders of the inequality and slavery and the Northerners abolitionists and defenders of the equality of all lessons.

The federalism dispute

From the beginning of the American nation there had been the problem of federalism, in which some states They considered that the government should have greater power and others thought that the states should have greater power. autonomy. In this situation the southerners considered the option of a kind of independence from the American system and the search for a new nation.

The political division of the nation

The importance of the issue of slavery reached politics, there being a division of the population between Democrats and Republicans depending on whether they supported slavery or abolitionism. This situation was demonstrated after the elections of 1860 when Lincoln's victory brought a total division of the nation.

Abraham Lincoln: new president

Abraham Lincoln's victory as new President of the United States brought a great problem and that is that many southern states refused to be led by one person that they considered totally antislavery and that therefore only looked after the interests of the Northerners. Many southern states began a secession to separate themselves from the rest of the nation, occupying federal bases to obtain weapons for the coming war.

The start of the American Civil War took place April 12, 1861, when a southern rebel army attacked a fort in the South Carolina area. Following this attack, four other southern states joined the call Confederacy to fight the call Union (formed by the northern states), in their quest to maintain slavery. This situation made Abraham Lincoln enlist thousands of soldiers for the war that was already started.

Lincoln communicated to his own nation and to foreign nations that the Confederacy was not a sovereign nation, but States in rebellion, initiating a naval blockade of all its regions. The blockade was unsuccessful at first and for two years the biggest victories were from the south, with his general Robert E. Lee humiliated the northern troops on numerous occasions.

Over the years, the port blockade, known as Anaconda Plan, was more successful in strangling the southern economy and making it more difficult for them to finance the war. The South could not sell its products to foreign nations and this prevented it from being able to buy weapons from European nations.

In this situation the battle of gettysburg, in which the victory of the Northerners brought the greater amount of casualties in all the war. Behind the union victory in this battle, the war totally changed and a counterattack by the unionists began that made the Confederates in a short time had little chance of victory.

On June 23, 1865, the surrender of the Confederates took place, bringing peace to war and eventually the abolition of slavery throughout the United States. This peace was not seen by Lincoln, who two months before the surrender of the Confederates was assassinated while attending the theater.

To conclude this lesson we must talk about the consequences of the American Civil War, an event that was of key importance in the later years of the United States. The main consequences of the Civil War were the following:

• With more than half a million dead, The American Civil War is considered one of the gravest in the history of the United States.
• Amendments approved number 13, 14 and 15 of the Constitution that served to fix things like equality and the end of slavery.
• Slavery was abolished, bringing the liberation of millions of slaves.
• Federal and President power The United States increased, causing criticism of the system to decline.
• The loss of slavery coupled with the war brought serious economic crises to the southern states.