The American Civil war which is in most cases known as the Civil War in America, was a civil war which was fought from the year 1861 up to 1895. This was basically so as to fight for the confederacy’s independence or also to determine how the inion will survive. In January 1861, seven states out of 34 states declared that they had pulled out from the United States and went ahead to form the Confederate States of America(Parish, 1975). These states were the slave states in the south.
This confederacy grew in number from 7 states to include additional 4 states forming a total of 11 states. Despite the fact that they claimed other western territories and additional 13 states, it was not at any one point recognized diplomatically by any of the foreign countries. The states which had kept up with their loyalty were in the northern region and were referred to as the Union.
This civil war had its origin. This Origin was based on slavery and slave trade. The mode of slavery in the United States was far more severe compared to the other western territories during that period. The way slavery was extended into the Western territories heightened the war. After the four year of great combat, which left more than half a million confederate and union soldiers dead and also lead to destruction of most of the infrastructure in the south, slavery and slave trade was totally abolished and thus leading to the collapse of the confederacy(Seeholzer, 2009). The process of reconstruction began. National unity and also guarantee of civil rights to the slaves was also put in place.
During the precedential elections in 1860, Republican’s Abraham Lincoln was in support of the ban of slavery in the United States theories. The southern States did not take this well as they saw it as being a violation to their rights(Seeholzer, 2009). Lincoln won the majority of the votes from the northern region and was elected as the president. Before he was inaugurated on 4thMarch 1961, the seven states, slave states, whose economies were cotton based went ahead to form the Confederacy. Lincoln addressed the citizens during his inauguration stating that he has no intentions for beginning a civil war.
Both the then outgoing Democrat president and also the incoming republican president were against secession as they viewed it as being illegal. The remaining eight slave states were against secession(Parish, 1975). The confederacy forces went ahead and seized all the federal forts within the territory that was claimed by the confederacy. Both the two sides prepared for war. The confederate had the idea that some of the European nations would intervene but this did not happen. None of these nations recognized the Confederate states.
In April 12, 1861, hostilities emerged right after the confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter. This battle continued up to the year 1865 which ended with Lee’s surrender. With the completion of this military war, it would take about 12 years on political reintegration thus the reconstruction era.
The civil war was one of the earliest, true, industrial wars. There was massive employment of the telegraph, railroads and also weapons that are massively produced(Licklider, 1995).
By the look of the above explanation, this war was inevitable given the circumstances at hand. There were three main reasons why the war began, these include civil liberties infringement, infringement on the state’s rights and also the collapse of the two party system. This three issues made it almost impossible to resolve the conflict between the south and the North. During Lincoln’s inauguration speech, the southerner’s had an impression that he would abide more by the Northerner’s interests(Parish, 1975). The Southerners then thus resolved to do their ‘rights’ and believed it was just as the government had turned out to be very oppressive. They thus filed for a declaration of secession from the American Union.
Lincoln saw this as being rebellious. At this point in time, the North were very great industrialists while the south were basically agriculturalist whose population was very slow to rise. When the abolition of slavery was being discussed, it became very clear that the Southerners were losing their grip on their part of the government (Parish, 1975). This situation became worse when the two parties that were in existence at that time, the “Whigs” and the Democrats started to be divided over the regions lines. The “Whigs” from the Northern side formed what is today known as the Republican Party.
Given all the above volatile situations which happened almost at the same time, the rise of conflict was nearly inevitable. The issue of states right, sectionalism and above all slavery had for 40 years been wrestled with. This was just the point where all these issues erupted at the same time and solution had to be found by used, unfortunately, by use of force and war.
In conclusion, this war was the deadliest of the American wars ever had in history. It led to the death of more than 112, 000 people who were killed in action or died of the wounds, the confederate prisons claimed the lives of more than 25,000 people, approximately 26,000- 31,000 people lost their lives in the Union prisons. By the end of the war, number of people who lost their lives was approximated at 675,000-900,000(Licklider, 1995).
Get Your Custom Paper From Professional Writers. 100% Plagiarism Free, No AI Generated Content and Good Grade Guarantee. We Have Experts In All Subjects.
Place Your Order Now