The Civil War was one of the bloodiest conflicts in American History. It was devastating for the United States with 620,000 lives being lost. Many view the Civil War as conflicts between the northern and southern states in the antebellum period. The Civil war was inevitable due to sectionalism, the fights for states’ rights and manifest destiny.
The expansion of slavery in the new territories resulted in political and social divisions in the US that increased the inevitability of the Civil War. When the Mexican War ended in 1848, America was ceded western territories. This caused a problem because now the states have to decide whether to be free or slave. To fix this problem, Congress passed the Compromise of 1850 which basically made California free and allowed the people to pick in Utah and New Mexico whether to be free or not. The bigger problem occurred as The Fugitive Slave act began; which required northerners to send escaped slaves back to the south.(Pardini.notes) The Fugitive Slave Law brought the issue to anti-slavery citizens in the North as it made them responsible for enforcing slavery. Abolitionists were now faced with the difficult choice of going against they believed to be an unjust law or breaking with their own duties and beliefs. In the end, the nation could not overcome the divisions over slavery, leading to the civil war. (http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Compromise-of-1850) In 1852 Dem F. Pierce won the 1852 election. In 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed allowing the Kansas and Nebraska territories to decide for themselves using popular sovereignty whether they wanted to be Free State or a slave state. In 1856, Kansas had gained the name of “bleeding Kansas”. These violent small wars and outbreaks led to succession and the Civil war. (Pardini.notes) The sectional differences between the North and South spurred the tensions that would culminate in the Civil War. The South’s economic system depended upon the continuation of slavery. The cheap labor source expanded the production of cotton and tobacco, thus increasing the wealth and prosperity of plantation owners. Inventions like the cotton gin, by Eli Whitney When Abraham Lincoln became President; the South didn't want to be part of the Union. They became the Confederate States of America, naming Jefferson Davis as president. Abraham Lincoln was forced to declare a war upon the confederate because of an army attack that they experienced. (http://forums.lifestylekarma.com/showthread.php?t=717) Political differences over the rights of states vs. the federal government created issues with in the country that angered the union of the United States. Congress passed a law that kept new states from becoming slave states. Every single slave state voted against this law, but it was still passed because the government was dominated by the Republicans. The South saw that it had no power in the federal government, and would rather form their own. So they did. Abraham Lincoln decided he must use the military to fight the rebels in order to protect the union of the United States leading up to the civil war. (pardini.notes) The
