What was the biggest mistake leading to the Civil War?

Answer 1

If you consider the Civil War itself to be a mistake, then the error that led to it was the refusal of the North to grant independence to the southern states.

Otherwise, the war was unavoidable. The northern colonies and southern colonies followed different laws and different cultures from the very beginning. After the Revolutionary War, a government was put together that was based almost entirely on trying to prevent the North and the South from fighting each other. Although the federal government was refined over time, the problem remained: although technically one country, the North and the South were so different (economically and culturally) that it was not possible for a federal government to rule them both equally and fairly.

The factors that led to the war (I won't say mistakes) went back hundreds of years. Certainly, many mistakes were made by both sides that didn't help matters, but there were really only two possibilities to "solve" the problem: separation or conquest.

See BRY1970's response for more good information.

Answer 2

The biggest mistake leading to the Civil War had to be the county's lack of acceptance that Collins' proposal for partition of the country into two states was a "stepping stone" for ultimate freedom. The ensuing battle between Free State and Republic certainly came about because of De Valera and Collins' inability to reach dialogue.
Oh-so sorry thats my country Ireland. By the way there are more countries than The United States in the world who've had civil wars.
Just thought i'd mention.

Answer 3

The biggest FACTOR leading to the Civil War is most likely Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin.

The biggest MISTAKE leading to the Civil War is the South's secession from the Union.

Answer 4

The Northern States, but mainly Abraham Lincoln ignoring the constitution. The constitution says NOTHING about states succeding and according to the 10th amendment if something is not in the Constitution and the act is left up to the states. The states never gave that power to the feds. It was NOT slavery
and further more the Civil war name is a misnomer.

Two factions were not fighting for control of the government. The South wanted OUT of the union but the Northern bullies wanted to keep the south.

The war should be called the War of Northern Aggresion or the war for southern independance!

Answer 5

It was the insistence of the tobacco and rice states( Maryland, Delaware and south from there) to keep slavery legal when the constitution was created. The only way the 13 orginal colonies could come together was to abandon the question of slavery and allow some other future generation to handle it.

No one wanted to tackle it head on, so every comprise about slavery dragged it out and caused greater anxiety about the issue. No man should be able to own another man and treat him as if he is a lesser human being. If the plantation owners would have accepted the old testament story of God freeing the Jews from their slavery to the Eygptians, and understood that it is was wrong, slavery would not have happened in the first place.

The south can insist they were fighting for states rights, but the right to phsically abuse and keep a man in bondage and treat him no better then a labor animal, is something you are proud to fight as your cause?! You are willing to destoy a union because owning someone is more important, then not owning someone. But I guess if you cannot see other races as equal then I guess you feel the goverment is going to change your way of live completely. So yes it was a war of northern aggression, how strong would either nation have been if the south was succesful in secession. Most northerns didn't care about slavery but were smart enough to realize the importance of the union.

Slavery should've been outlawed the monement we signed peace with England. But becasue it wasn't the south clung on to their belief that slavery was an important state right, something they thought they needed to defend. How misguided can you be, if the orginal plantation owners weren't so damn lazy and did physcial labor maybe slavery would not have been an issue and certianly not a right they felt should be protected.

Answer 6

Lincoln calling for states to send troops to put down and insurrection. That caused several southern states join the rebellion plunged Missouri into chaos.

We are one of only two countries that had a war over slavery. Most countries eliminated slavery without bloodshed by compensating slave owners for the loss.

If Lincoln had not sent troops into the South there never would have been a war. Slavery would have ended and the country would have been re-united within 10 years. Due the war southern states were under military occupation until 10 years after the war.

It was a tragedy that didn't need to happen. 25% of all white males between the ages of 20 and 40 were killed during the war and almost twice as many northerners. It would be equal to war with today's population that killed 5 million.

Lincoln used military force to destroy federalism and states rights that had been installed when the country was founded. He used the work to further the idea of a centralized government that would dispense taxpayer subsidies to corporations and finance them with protectionist tariffs.

Prior to the war 90% of federal taxes were paid by southern states and 90% of federal subsidies to railroads, barge companies and steel makers went to northern states.

Lincolns fear that free southern states would establish tariff free ports in Carolina and Georgia would dry up federal revenue pushed the decision to war.

Answer 7

I bet some idiot will repeat that nonsense about the war being over slavery. Shoot, the Emancipation Proclamation wasn't even a glimmer in Lincoln's beady eye until June of 1862, nearly a year after the war started.
The War of Northern Aggression started with the failure of the North to recognize the rights of states. The resulting war, the destruction of the South, and the centralization of power in the Federal government has been the root cause of most of the pain and suffering of the last century.
America was founded as a union of states. It has become an amalgamation, with states reduced to bureaucratic subregions of little significance or individual identity.
Shame, really.

Answer 8

The biggest mistake or error leading to the Civil War? Most likely President Buchanan's ineffective stance against seccession, as analysts have noted he "fiddled while Rome burned." With a resolute leader the likes of Andrew Jackson, South Carolina and other seccessionists would most likely have been stopped.

Answer 9

The Civil War was no mistake but an almost inevitable result of the compromises that created the Constitution.

I notice that one idiot has already claimed that it wasn't about slavery. Of course, anyone who is not an illiterate can simply read the explanations that were given by the slave states for their acts of secession.

Oddly enough, the four states which took the trouble to explain themselves officially stated in no uncertain terms that the reason they were leaving is because they believed that slavery was about to be abolished by newly elected president.

Answer 10

The worst decision leading to war happened in 1641.

It was in that year that Massachusetts became the first British colony in America to recognize slavery as a legal institution. The other colonies soon followed suit, and the subjugation of millions of people for the sake of profit began.