Discuss the causes of the Civil War. Could conflict have been avoided?

Essay by yangdanni718 October 2014

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Danni Yang Final Exam Essay

June. 11

Discuss the causes of the Civil War. Could conflict have been avoided?

The Civil War, also known as the "War between the States", was fight from 1861 to 1865 between the Union (or the North) and the Confederacy (the South). There were many causes such as economic disparity between north and south, slavery, and the election of Abraham Lincoln.

The North had an industrial based economy whereas the South was a predominantly agricultural economy. One of the major reasons of the outburst of the Civil War was two different labor systems - free labor in the north and slavery in the south. In the Northern America, as the machines took place of laborers in the rise of big factories, they needed free labor instead of slavery, so the slaves became no longer important. On the other hand, the South was based on agricultural and relied upon the labor of the slaves.

This economic disparity has given rise to a debate over slavery. The North wanted to end up the spread of slavery, since it was a major obstacle in the development of Northern economy, but at the same time, it would cause big loss of benefit in the South. The conflict was intensified by the election of Lincoln of 1840, because the Southerners thought Lincoln was anti-slavery and would be in favor of Northern interests. After the election of Lincoln, South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida and some other southern states seceded from the Union and formed the Confederacy. On April 12, 1861, the Confederates oped fire at Ft. Sumter, which was the first battle of the Civil War.

Conflict between the North and the South could not have been avoided. The industrial capitalistic economy in the North and plantation economy in...