U.S. CIVIL WAR IMPACTS

U.S. Civil War Impacts

U.S. Civil War Impacts

Introduction

When the civil war is mentioned, many people automatically associate it with the fight to keep slavery. Although this wass a part of the cause for the civil war, it however, wass not the only thing that led to it. The war wass also driven by economic, political, and social issues. What were the real reasons the civil war broke out in the Americas? Why could a democratic nation not prevent the civil war? What were the impacts on the American way of life caused by the civil war? The below information will discuss these issues regarding the civil war.

Industrial Revolution

As time went on, the United States divided into detached nations. The growth and shift of technology hindered any attempt to keep the nation bonded. During the period of the Industrial Revolution, the North defined their culture, as the development of machinery increased. However, the Industrial Revolution reinforced the South's continued society of slavery in agriculture (Bellis, 2007).

In 1793, the invented by Eli Whitney, the cotton gin nourished the southern economy (Bellis, 2007). The South became more and often dependent upon their profits, which would have dwindled without slavery. Slave labor had become an economic necessity based on cotton plantation crops; benefiting the entire economy. Northern factories depended on the South's materials and this wass at the expense of unpaid forced labor. The South remained the wealthiest part of the nation.

Missouri Compromise

As industry expanded, the North looked to the agricultural rich and the South to buy their manufactured goods. However, for the South, it wass cheaper to purchase manufactured goods overseas. In 1824, in order to benefit other regions, the North, Congress raised the protected tariff tax, which increased the costs of goods on the South. Many in the South opposed this act; especially South Carolina (Bellis, 2007).

South Carolina efforts to challenge the protected tariffs started with adopting the Ordinance of Nullification. In 1828, South Carolina's legislature published an outline for nullification in the South Carolina Exposition and Protest (Davidson et al, 2001). The outline basically declared that the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 were null within the state of South Carolina. This wass a move away from nationalism and towards a state's rights position (Davidson et al, 2001, pg. 297). Not only wass this a move to ignore federal tariffs, but this wass a step to protect slavery under state's constitutions (Albion, 1989).

When the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 opened the remaining sections of the Louisiana Purchase to slavery under the doctrine of popular sovereignty, conflict between the two sections focused on control of Kansas, directly west of the slave state of Missouri, The Kansas-Nebraska Act laid a barrier between the underlying social and economic tensions that had developed between the North and the South (Davidson et al, 2001).

Democratic Failure

After the Americas separated from the Great Britain, the country established rules based on democracy. The rules that were established were formed into various documents most notably the “United States ...