Civil War: Prelude to the Civil War

There were many events that led to the Civil War. The first event was the Missouri Compromise. The Missouri Compromise admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, thus keeping the balance in the Senate. It also banned slavery in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase north of latitude 36 degrees, which was Missouri's southern boundary. The Missouri Compromise came about, because of the debate over both slavery and Missouri's economy in 1819, when Missouri was applied for statehood. If Missouri was to become a slave state, it would have tipped the balance in the Senate in favor of the south. However, there was a congressman named James Tallmadge of New York who tried to amend the Missouri statehood bill to require the gradual elimination of slavery in Missouri. Slaveholders took this offensive, and naturally there was a dispute over this. That is when Henry Clay introduced the Missouri Compromise in 1820.

The United States in 1819. The Missouri Compromise...

Mexican Cession in Mexican View

An enlargeable map of the United States after the ...

This compromise affected the nation because it temporarily eased the crisis. However, the debate left many Americans worried that the issue of slavery would return. So this temporarily solved slavery, but of course the problem would still persist later in history.

The next issue before the Civil War is the Mexican Cession. The Mexican Cession came after the Mexican War. It is a territory of land that the United States acquired. It included the present-day states of California, Nevada, and Utah, as well as parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming. In return, the United States agreed to pay Mexico $15 million and take over the payment of damages claimed by Americans against Mexico. The United States also agreed to grant full citizenship to Mexicans who lived in the Mexican Cession. This agreement angered many Mexican citizens, because they now had to...