What Are The 3 Main Causes of The Civil War?
| BEST Quick Answer:
1. First Cause: The Conflict Between Northern And Southern States Over The Issue of Slavery. For The North, Slavery Was An Abominable Crime Against Humanity. But At The Same Time, For The South, Slavery Was An Important Part of Their Socio-Economic Life. 2. Second Cause: The Role of The 16th United States President Abraham Lincoln And The Republican Party. Lincoln Was An Abolitionist From The Very Beginning. 3. Third Cause: The Economic And Political Gap Between North And South. Compared To The South, The Northern States Enjoyed More Political & Economic Benefits From The Federal Government. The Southern States Always Felt Discontented And Discriminatory For This Reason. The Issue of Slavery Set Fire On Their Unhappiness. Read More To Understand Better. |
The main causes of the American Civil War have always been controversial and multi-dimensional.
The war happened due to several economic, social, and political causes.
But here we have tried to discuss them all within just 3 points.
So, let’s see what are the 3 main causes of the American Civil War.
3 Main Causes of The American Civil War
1. The Conflict Between North And Southern States Over The Issue of Slavery
The northern states were highly industrialized. Their economic activities were mostly performed by machinery equipment. Therefore, Slaves had less importance in their economic life.
But, contrary to the northern states, the south was not industrialized. Mainly, they were dependent upon agriculture.
Hence, they had to use slaves to fulfill their economic interests. Slavery became a significant part of their day-to-day life.
On the other hand, it was not a new tradition in the South; this had been going on since the time of British rule in the 13 colonies.
But the people in the North started believing it was an evil act against humanity.
Especially, some leaders like John Brown, Harrit Tubman, and Frederick Douglass succeeded in convincing a large number of people that Slavery was wrong and against humanity.
Because of this reason, the people of the southern states’ named them ‘Abolitionists’ and they had always been in an ideological conflict.
However, everything was going fine until the mid of the 19th century.
But when the northern states started raising the slavery issue to abolish it via a constitutional amendment from the whole United States of America, they feel it was like an attack on their socioeconomic life.
They refused to accept it anyhow.
As a result, it brought the dark cloud of the Civil War to the country.
2. The Role of President Abraham Lincoln And The Republican Party
In 1860, Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln was elected as the 16th president of the United States of America.
Mr. Lincoln and his party always opposed Slavery.
They believed, Slavery was against humanity and that would always remain an obstacle to building America into a great nation.
Here, Abraham Lincoln specifically tried to show the will of the United States’ founding fathers to abolish slavery.
Mainly, through the Declaration of Independence, the founding fathers mentioned – “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal….”.
During the American Revolution, for some controversial reasons, they did unable to do it; so, Lincoln believed that now is the right time to complete the unfinished work.
President Lincoln’s stand threatened southern states. They were afraid that he would ban slavery and demolish their socioeconomic life.
As a response, for the first time, South Carolina declared independence from the United States.
After that, in 1861, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Louisiana also declared independence.
The same year, they attacked Sumter fort on 12th April from South Carolina and began the first phase of the bloody Civil War.
[Note: When Lincoln was a teenager, once he said to his friends that if he ever gets a chance in the future, he will eliminate this inhumanity (Slavery) from the entire American society]
3. The Economic And Political Gap Between North And South
Due to being dependent upon industrialization, the northern states’ economic condition was much better than the southern states.
On the other hand, those states represented 2/3 of the whole United States population. Therefore they enjoyed more facilities than the south.
Because of their higher population, they enjoyed more economic and political benefits from the federal government.
All these incidents had been forcing the southern states to feel discontented and discriminatory for decades.
And therefore, when the federal government decided to ban slavery, they got a golden chance to revolt.
