There were many things that led to
the civil war. So for the civil war not
to happen at all or been avoided, these things would not have to happen either.
So in my opinion it is not possible the civil war could have been avoided. Some
of these reasons the civil war happened are economic differences, states vs.
federal rights, the election of Abraham Lincoln, and slavery.
The first cause I want to talk
about for the disturbances between the north and the south was their economic
differences. It was a huge problem for many different reasons; the north was
basing their life on industry and the growth of technology while the south was
still basing their living on agriculture content with the way things were. The
north was advancing at a rapid pace and in a way leaving the south behind to
pick cotton. And that is exactly what they did; the cotton gin was invented and
it made it easier to pick cotton in turn giving the south another reason to
keep slaves and so the south became a one crop economy.
Another
issue was states vs. federal rights. When America began they had the articles
of the confederation which resulted in a lot of states that were neighbors but
nothing more because the federal government was so weak it had no power over
its people. They were disconnected from one another and that’s how some of them
liked it, but when it came to trying to unite the two sides it was near
impossible to do so. Then the constitution gave the federal government more
control and some states just sat the idea out because they didn’t want to be
controlled by the government which in turn resulted in the idea of
nullification. States could just decide which ideas to like and which ideas not
to like from the government and that resulted in a torn nation.
There
was the election of Abraham Lincoln also. This was a sort of breaking point for
the nation, and even though they were already butting heads some southern
states believed that Lincoln was anti-slavery and in favor of the north before
he even became president; seven states had already succeeded when he went into
office.
Slavery is usually the only thing
people can come up with when they are asked what started the civil war. Slavery was a huge part of the disagreements
between the north and the south but it wasn’t the only reason. Also during this
time there was a growth of the abolitionist movement and that helped push the
two sides over the edge about slavery. One of the largest reasons slavery
become an issue was because America began to expand the north and the south due
to the Louisiana purchase as well as general movement westward; they began to
disagree on which states became slave states and which states became free
states. A few acts were devised to help the process along and they were the
Missouri compromise, and the compromise of 1850. Acts were thought up and shot
down and passed through which only made the tensions worse.
The previous paragraphs are reasons
why the civil war happened, so now I can talk about how it may have been
possible in some way that it may have been avoided and how different today
would be. First off the main thing we lost in the civil war was life and
property; the list of casualties was about 620,000. With Sherman’s march to the
sea in mind, entire plantations, even cities were burned to the ground. So for
starters, that wouldn’t have happened and brothers and fathers, even mothers
would still be alive. Honestly what the south should have done was in the early
1850’s was just realize that slavery was a dying work form, and just release
them. They could have gotten by with a third less slaves anyways, and they
could have found another way, like I don’t know..paid labor. In regards to the
political struggle between the two sides it would have been almost impossible
to prevent a fight.
There were many reasons for the
disagreements from the north and the south and eventually those disagreements
went so far that the civil war came to pass. In my opinion it could have never
been prevented and honestly it needed to happen to reunite the United States.
How has your writing changed?
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