Cause and effect of the Civil War

Cause and effect of the Civil War

Introduction

War in general is the conflict of two or more parties, groups or governments. Mostly, a war involves two or more nations or governments of countries. In the older days, war was fought on open grounds between kings and armies. Now, wars have been transformed into more nuclear forms with technology leading the battle.

Civil war is a war which is fought mostly within the boundaries of one country. When the people of a country or nation divide themselves into groups and those groups start fighting with each other, it is called a civil war. In a civil war, the government usually makes up one group and the other is mostly people who rebel against the leadership and state. The aim of a civil war is to bring down the current governing authorities of the nation and to implement a new world order or governing system. The term Civil War comes from the Latin word Civile which refered to Romanian battles that used to happen in the first century BC. In the older days, civil wars used to last for months and even years. In the early 1900s, the world faced a series of civil wars which lasted an average of 1.5 to 2 years. During the end of the 1900s, the duration of civil wars reduced to a few months.

The intensity of civil wars is usually very intense and both parties suffer considerable damage. Regular armed forces of the government get involved in the war and they battle with the rebellion. Just like in any war, a lot of resources get wasted and casualties occur. There is considerable damage to the society, economy and state. Mostly, this is also the moment when governments and countries are most vulnerable to attacks from other hostile nations. The main difference between a Civil war and a national war is that in a civil war, the people fight among themselves and the army is compelled to harm and hurt people that they once swore to protect (Childers, 1993).

Overview and Origin

One of the most prominent wars of American History is the American Civil War which occurred from 1861 to the year 1865. It lasted for almost 4 years and caused a lot of damage to the economy and state of USA. It also brought some major changes to the nation. The people of USA call this war as the 'War between States' because of the fact that the participants of the war were divided into different states and colonies. The war was fought over the secession of Confederate States in which eleven slave states of the South declared war against the state and claimed independence from the government of the United States. Their formation is popularly known as the Confederacy. The remaining 25 states of America supported the government and formed the Union. For four years, the Union fought with the Confederacy. The war ended with the surrender of the Confederacy but in ...