Abstract The essay discusses the causes of the Americancivilwar. The paper argues that the different economic and political systems in the Northern and Southern states caused tensions that led to the CivilWar.
Abstract This paper studies the causes of the AmericanCivilWar. While most historians maintain that slavery was the main cause of the war, there are others who feel that slavery was only responsible to a certain extent and that there were complex political and economic factors which played an important role in the CivilWar. Slavery was the oldest and most controversial issue dividing the North and the South and served as the primary catalyst for the CivilWar but it was certainly not the only factor. South's waning ability to maintain its army of slaves and North's growing industrial power also fueled the conflict. There were some political factors too including the issue of equal representation in the Congress and states? autonomy which must be considered as possible causes of the war.
From the Paper "Civil war is the most momentous and crucial period in the history of America. Not only did this war bring an end to centuries of slavery in the country but also gave way to numerous social and political changes. The country had already been torn by the negative trend in race relations and numerous cases of slave uprisings were taking their toll on the country's political and social structure. While slavery is cited as the most common cause of the Civil War, it is believed that there were several other factors involved. In other words, though slavery was the major cause it was certainly not the only cause. Civil war and abolition of slavery have become synonymous terms as the former led to the latter. But still some historians maintain that slavery has been turned into a too convenient excuse in connection with the Civil War."
Tags:war, american, civil, slavery, north, south, white, black
Abstract In this paper, the writer looks at similarities between the AmericanCivilWar and the Franco-Prussian war. The writer explains that these two wars, as the first modern industrial wars, were similar in their power to mobilize, organize and deploy mass conscript armies. The writer contends that the AmericanCivilWar took much longer due to deficiencies in Northern military leadership.
From the Paper "This research paper compares and contrasts military and some related political aspects of the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War. Both of these wars involved the mobilization, organization and deployment on a continental scale of mass conscription armies, armed with powerful standardized weapons of the early industrial era. Both wars caused carnage and casualties among the participants on a theretofore unprecedented scale, especially the American Civil War, which lasted more than four years while the active combat phase ... "
Tags: industrialization, of, war, revolution, in, military, technology, and, strategy
Abstract The AmericanCivilWar, in which 3 million fought and 600,000 died, was the greatest war in the history of the United States and the only one fought on American soil by Americans. The paper shows that the CivilWar of 1861-1865 is used to describe the conflict between the northern states of the union and the southern states that seceded from the union and formed the Confederacy. The paper explains that the war was fought with forces that came mostly from the twenty-three northern states of the union and the newly formed Confederate States of America, which consisted of eleven southern states that had declared their secession.
From the Paper "During the days of the American Revolution and the adoption of the Constitution, the North and South were bonded by their common interest in establishing a new nation, and differences seemed insignificant in comparison, however sectionalism steadily grew stronger. By the nineteenth century, the South had remained almost completely agricultural, and its economy and social order was largely founded on slavery and the plantation system. The North also had its great agricultural resources, however it was more commercially advanced and was also expanding industrially."
Abstract This paper examines the modernization of warfare that occurred during the AmericanCivilWar, a process that was centered on the kinds of weapons that were used, but also had to do with changing ideas about the nature of war as well. This paper focuses on an examination of the types of bullets used in the war by both sides because new techniques in the manufacturing of bullets was the core of the modernization of warfare.
From the Paper "The American Civil War is often referred to as the last of the old-fashioned wars in terms of its weaponry, its military strategy and its casualty rates. Looking at these same criteria, it is also arguable ? and this seems to be the more tenable position ? that it was in fact the first modern war, and this was the case primarily because of the weapons that were used, including the types of guns and the types of bullets."
Tags: weapon, war, gun, bullet, american, civil, military
Abstract The paper explains that the AmericanCivilWar was a ghastly testimonial to mankind's inhumanity. The paper shows how nowhere was this better exemplified than in the POW camps, where more people perished than on the battlefield. This paper then explores Andersonville, the most infamous of these prisons.
From the Paper "It is perhaps the Prisoner of War camps that best exemplify the cruel and deadly nature of the American Civil War. In the south, General John Henry Winder, supervisor for all the POW camps east of the Mississippi, once happily observed that more Union soldiers were dying in his prisons than on the battlefield. Of all these prisons the most infamous was undoubtedly Andersonville."
Tags: andersonville, prisoners of war, civilwar, wirz, prisoner exchange
Abstract The paper explores how the Mexican-AmericanWar, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Dred Scott decision, the Lincoln Douglas Debates and the Freeport Doctrine all influenced the coming of the AmericanCivilWar. The paper also discusses the military campaign in the Western theater of the war from January through June of 1862 and provides a brief outline of the generalship of Robert E. Lee and George B. McClellan.
Outline:
The Relationship Between the Mexican-AmericanWar and the Coming of the AmericanCivilWar The Relationship Between the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Coming of the AmericanCivilWar The Relationship Between the Dred Scott Decision, the Lincoln Douglas Debates, the Freeport Doctrine, and the Coming of the AmericanCivilWar The Military Campaign in the Western theater of the War from January through June of 1862
Generalship of Robert E. Lee and George B. McClellan
From the Paper "The Civil War represented one of the most important parts in the history of the United States. It was the essence of the American struggle for democracy as well as for the national identity and unity that would eventually emerge after its end. The premises of the war revolved around the issue of the Texan territory. Thus, the early connections were established "at the invitation of a Mexican government that had just won its independence from Spain. However, by 1830, Mexico was alarmed at the influx of a population alien in language and culture, suspect in political allegiance, and committed to slavery in defiance of Mexico's recent abolition of the institution" (McPherson, 2001) Therefore, what started as a limited relationship came to be seen as a possible threat."
Tags: Mexican-American, War, Kansas-Nebraska, Act, Dred, Scott, Lincoln, Douglas, Debates, Freeport, Doctrine, McClellan, Lee
Abstract The paper discusses the issue of slavery in the southern states that is considered to be the central issue that eventually led to the CivilWar. The paper also looks at the ever-increasing power of the US federal government over the individual states and the fundamental differences between the bases of the Northern and Southern economies and ways of life as causes of the CivilWar. The paper examines the effects of the war and notes that resolution of the social issues triggered by American slavery were only partially resolved by the CivilWar.
Outline:
Introduction
Slavery as a Cause of The AmericanCivilWar Federalism and Foreign Tariffs as a Cause of the AmericanCivilWar The Western Territories
The Effects of the AmericanCivilWar
From the Paper "The American Civil War marked a pivotal point in the history of the young nation, forever changing it in myriad ways. It included thousands of brutal battles fought mainly in the Southern states and all but ruining several for years afterwards. It brought unparalleled devastation to the south from which it required a generation or more to recover.
"Generally, the issue of slavery in the southern states is considered to be the central issue that eventually led to war, but there were at least two other issues that contributed greatly to the antagonism of the southern states; namely, the ever-increasing power of the federal government over the individual states, and the fundamental differences between the bases of the Northern and Southern economies and ways of life."
Abstract The AmericanCivilWar was a conflict between the Northern and Southern sections of the United States, but it was, according to the author of the paper, a conflict between the romantic and the modern. The writer contends that both sides entered the war with romantic ideas of how war ought to be fought and slowly became disabused of these ideas by the terrible reality of slaughter on the CivilWar battlefield. The writer continues and states that once the reality of war was understood, the North enjoyed two distinct advantages: It possessed a corps of leaders who were able to adapt to the new conditions of warfare and superior material and industrial resources, which are ultimately what determine victory in modern war. In the paper, the author examines these factors and how, in his opinion, they contributed to the North's victory.
From the Paper "Civilians then, are the true object of war: "the humane thing is to overcome them by means of hunger and nakedness. The earlier we can do so, the less effusion of blood." Bierce acknowledge that the Union had gone through a learning process. "I speak of the latter part of the conflict, when we had learned how to conduct military operations. As long as our main purpose was bloodshed we made little progress." Northern victory in the Civil War was inevitable because in modern warfare the means of production translate directly into military power. In this regard, the South was extraordinarily weak compared to the North. But the Union victory was only achieved when Northern commanders realized the true nature of the war and prosecuted it accordingly. By the end of the war, Northern industry was turning out unlimited quantities of repeating rifles, breech-loading artillery, and iron clad warships. The South had lost even its never very great capacity to make muskets. This disparity was at one and the same time the cause and effect of the Northern victory."
Tags: lincoln, honor, war, gettysburg, battle, napoleon, rifles, duel, americans, french, confererate, military, industry, adaptation, officers, history
Abstract This paper explains that the outbreak of the CivilWar cannot be contributed to one cause or problem. The paper discusses the factors which contributed to the outbreak of the war. The factors were as follows: economic considerations, the ideologies of the people, and the expansion of the United States territory. The paper shows how slavery in itself was not the single factor contributing to war, but that each succeeding crisis in the country began to bring slavery up as a factor until the politics of the time were a tangle of issues, conflicting attitudes, and personal emotions. The writer explains that being unable to objectively separate these issues brought war upon the nation. In conclusion, the writer states that the ideals of homeland, political stability, freedom for all, economic gain, moral values, and heritage all combined to make the AmericanCivilWar inevitable.
From the Paper "By the 1850's there was an ever-growing imbalance between the North and South in the areas of population and distribution of wealth. The South was quickly becoming the minority faction in a Union based on majority rule. As the South saw themselves slipping into subjugation to the growing political power residing in the North, there was a rising need to defend their economic system in order to survive. Southerners as a whole began to defend slavery as a means of economic survival. With the defense of slavery came an attitude of defensiveness against everything Southern. The South was not going to by bullied by the overbearing North on any issue. This tended to gravitate both sides away from each other and away from methods of compromise. In all the various compromises proposed and passed by the government in the years prior to the Civil War there was never an economic solution to the slavery issue proposed. The North never tried to help the South abolish slavery by finding other methods to fill this need of plantation agriculture or to help bring industry to the South; they wanted slavery abolished without its further spread into the newly acquired territories and that was it.
"The economics of the pre-war United States played a large part in the inevitability of war even though by itself it was not a cause. The economic discussions and emotions asserted over financial distribution caused a political rift, which enlarged to become an uncrossable void. From the South's point of view, the government in Washington was pushing plantation owners into a corner and was destined to bring financial ruin to the south. Agricultural interests knew that for the South to continue to grow economically, the plantation system and southern agriculture in general must be expanded into other territories. It was from this standpoint that economics became tied to territorial expansion."
Discusses women of the South during the CivilWar as portrayed in ?Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the AmericanCivilWar" by Drew Gilpin Faust.
Abstract This paper discusses Faust's book "Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the AmericanCivilWar". It focuses on how women can empower themselves even in the face of hardship and the oppressions that society puts on them. The author illustrates how the book portrays women coping with adversity and gives a new perspective on the CivilWar.
From the Paper "According to Faust, three out of every four white men were sent to war and the black men were left to do the work on the plantations. When the war started and the women were left on their own, they first had to choose if they would stay at their plantations or if they would move in with family. The management of the home and their lives became more of a key issue for them than ever before ? providing food for themselves and the slaves, economic certainty and so forth. Through the story of Lizzie Neblett we see one woman's frustration with these tasks ? she describes her 11 slaves and all the problems she has with them, her anger at her husband and how she doesn?t want to be pregnant again, how she must ask a neighbor for help to "manage" her slaves and how her life as a "lady" really is turned upside down when her husband leaves for the war."
Abstract This paper explores the causes of the AmericanCivilWar that have been obscured by the contemporary equality of all peoples. The paper looks at the great differences that helped start the war between, not only blacks and whites, but between the North and the South and between those who wished for a union with strong central government and those who believed in the formation of a conglomerate of states without a central authority. The paper chronologically reviews the major historic battles of the CivilWar.
From the Paper "The CSA or Confederate States of America declared themselves conglomerate of states, lacking any final central authority. This division of power proved to be, towards the end of the war, ultimately unworkable. Eventually as well even the CSA debated the need to liberate the enslaved peoples within its borders, because of the untenable fact of having a nation divided between free people and enslaved people. The Union's way of life and industrialization was to triumph over the feudal system of agriculture and plantation-based economies of the South."
Abstract The paper discusses the most critical causes behind the AmericanCivilWar and reveals that the seeds of war already began with the Constitution of 1787. The paper shows how the CivilWar was the outcome of a series of problematic and ultimately futile political "compromises" which culminated in the breakdown of the national consensus in the election of 1860.
From the Paper "The seeds of the national breakdown were sown at the very beginning, in what came to be called "the three-fifths compromise" in the Constitution of 1787. This compromise, found in Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3 of the Constitution, stated that representation and taxation for the individual states would be based upon the total census of citizens plus three-fifths (60%) of slaves (called "other persons" in the actual text.) This peculiar text (often mischaracterized as asserting that an African is only "three-fifths" of a person) was the result of a compromise between non-slaveholding states (who didn't want any slaves to be counted, in order to reduce the Congressional power of the slaveholding states) and the slaveholding states (who wanted all individuals counted, to increase their power.) In one sense, we might see the outbreak of the Civil War as being the last in a long line of such questionable political compromises which began with this Constitutional provision."
Abstract This paper discusses the main causal factors of the AmericanCivilWar. It specifically focuses on the role of slavery in developing antagonism between the northern and southern states, the fundamental issue of state sovereignty against the growing authority of the federal government and the very different life style and political and economic bases of life in the southern states as compared with those that shaped life in the North.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
The Role of Slavery as a Root Cause of The AmericanCivilWar The Role of Federalism, Foreign Tariffs and the Western Territories
From the Paper "When Missouri requested ratification as an independent slaveholding state within the American Union in 1817, northern states fiercely opposed the recognition of a slave state so far north. Resolution came in the form of the Compromise of 1820, pursuant to which Missouri was recognized as a slave state but Maine as a free state, thereby maintaining the balance of representation in the senate. It was the first of a series of similar compromises intended to avoid outright conflict between the North and South over the underlying issue of slavery."
Abstract This paper discusses the scope and effects of the AmericanCivilWar on American society. It then attempts to provide an explanation for the peculiar trend that the war's denouement and crucial aftermath (the decade of Reconstruction) is so noticeably absent from historical accounts. The paper look at the ways in which Reconstruction is a painful and divisive topic for all Americans, even today.
From the Paper "Despite some successes, the complicated, limited, 'unfinished' nature of both Reconstructions is most likely the reason for the gap in the scholarship on this topic amongst people who were in favour of Reconstruction, as well as their reluctance to create further antagonism over an issue that continues to divide America. This is not to say there is no literature on Reconstruction, but of the works that do exist, many contradict one another over lines of time, race, location and political affiliation. There does not seem to be consensus over many issues at all, and it seems that no conclusion has been reached with regard to this period's real meaning and significance. It is not surprising that those people who were 'anti-Reconstruction' (many of whom subscribe to the ideas of the 'Lost Cause') remained equally quiet and divided over an issue that incites such passion. They too feel the failure of the period (perhaps more specifically the 20th Century version) in that black people did improve their position substantially from what it was under slavery, and did enjoy gains that so threatened white citizens of the South (provoking the brutality which for some, may be a source of shame). It is no surprise these people remain reluctant to dredge up old scars."
