Causes of the American Civil War (Essay Sample)

Name:
Course:
Instructor:
Date:
American Civil War.
The American civil war was one of the most important turning points of North America in the history of the nation. The civil war was a conflict between North America and the Southern States. The southern states, commonly known as the slave states announced their secession from the Northern states which accommodated the freed slaves and was commonly known as the union led to the start of this war. The aspect that fueled this war was the election of Abraham Lincoln and his commitment to abolishing slavery. This conflict was marked by some most fearsome military campaigns in history, and this paper will look into the cause and consequences of the civil war which ran for four years, between 1861 and 1865.
Causes of the civil war.
Some reasons have been brought forward as the main causes of the civil war, and these reasons will be discussed in this section. The first cause of the civil war was the disparity between the economy and the society. This reason played a vital role in the start of the civil war, and this is because of the invention of the cotton grin by Eli Whitney back in 1793. It proved to be very effective due to the reduction of the time taken to separate cotton from the seeds. This led to people shifting to farming hence the southern states shifted plantation farming which meant that they required a large workforce which could be provided easily by slaves. This led to the southern mainly depending on farming and the north on industries making it urban. This led to a situation where different classes had to interact, but the southern states were not ready for this idea (Collier, Paul and Sambanis, 2002)
Secondly, after the revolution happened, a controversy arose on whether states should be given more power or the state should be left to exercise more control. Since the independence of America, the relationship between states was governed by the Articles of Confederation, but due to the facts that the members experienced common problems, the American constitution was created. This led to the usurping the member states the power to nullify any acts that they felt was interfering with their rights.
Consequently, Thomas Jefferson among others, who were the strong proponents of this move did everything to protect the nullification idea. When member states felt that nullification was no longer being applied, they decided to leave. This played a role in starting the civil war (Collier, Paul and Sambanis, 2002).
Thirdly, the fight between states that encouraged slavery and the ones that did not also played a major role in fueling this war. The 1820 Missouri Compromise prohibited slavery in states that were gained from the Louisiana Purchase. This differences of whether slavery should be stopped or not played a major role in fueling the start of the civil war because the Northern states were fighting for the abolishment of slavery and the southern states were fighting for the continuance of slavery (McPherson, 2003).
The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 led to the secession of states like South Carolina, Texas among others because these states believed that Lincoln favored the northern states and anti-slavery laws. The states that promoted slavery were outnumbered in the Senate and house of representatives, and this angered the southern states thus fueling the civil war (McPherson, 2003).
Outcomes of the Civil war.
The civil war impacted various sectors of the country, for example, the agricultural sector, and the industrial revolution. In the southern states, which largely depended on slaves for providing the required workforce in plantations suffered a great deal because northern states were fighting slavery abolishment. Additionally, the northern states installed a blockade on