Causes of the American Civil War
Economic differences between the North and the South:
– North: industrialised, urbanised, favoured higher tariffs
– South: conservative, dependent on agriculture, favoured lower tariffs
Different views of the Constitution
– North: argued that the federal government was dominant and that its
authority was greater than that of the states
– South: believed in state rights; the idea that individual states were more
important than the federal government
Slavery
– North: although it was legal, they believed it was inhumane – they
demanded that it should be made illegal
– South: because it was legal, they used it as an advantage to use slaves
to deliver them prosperity, through having them industrialise their
economy by working in agricultural labor like cotton picking, to boost the
cotton industry, the Southerners saw the Northerners as a threat to end
slavery as they wanted to make it illegal, they also saw them as trying to
control over the state
– The Abolition movement aimed to bring to an end slavery and
emancipate all slaves, John Brown was a significant slavery abolitionist
Westward Expansion
– As the nation grew, so did the problem of slavery. The north did not want
slavery to expand, whereas the south felt that it was legal and should be
present wherever they wanted
– There was a series of compromises to balance the number of slave and
free states. By 1818, 11 were free and 18 were slave, also equalising the
balance of slave and free senators
– Missouri Compromise, 1820: Missouri wanted to be let into the Union as
a 'slave' state → The compromise reached that they would be admitted
as a slave state and Maine would be admitted as a free state
– Compromise, 1849: California was declared free while Utah and New
Mexico were given popular sovereignty in 1850 (the idea that the states
could decide for themselves if they wanted to join as free or slave states)
– Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed in 1854...