Can someone please tell me what started the american civil war?

Answer 1

There were many causes of the American Civil War. Contrary to popular belief, the war didn't begin as a fight over slavery. Abraham Lincoln sent troops into the South to reunite the Union. Some southern states seceded, or left, the Union because of slavery.

What caused secession, you ask? This also is a very complicated topic. The main reason is the debate over whether slavery should have been allowed in new, western states. Most citizens of the South wanted slavery to be allowed in the new states. In contrast, most people in the North wanted new states to be free states.

Another one of the causes was the differences between the North and the South. The South was more agricultural, while the North was more industrial. This caused a difference in population. Most factories, railroads, and canals in the U.S. were in the North. Especially because of the greater number of factories, the North had a larger population. Therefore, they had more representatives in the House of Representatives. Because of this, the anti-slavery movement had stronger congressional support.

A different cause of southern secession was of moral rights. During the Enlightenment period, people began to think that everyone has basic rights. Many abolitionists in the North believed this.

Because the economy of the South was agricultural, tariffs (taxes on imported goods) were a controversial topic. If tariffs on imported food were higher, more Americans would buy their food from the south. Likewise, if tariffs were lower, an larger number of people would get their food from Europe and other countries.

State's rights were important in the South. They believed state governments should have more power then the national government. Northerners didn't agree.

One book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, was actually a cause of the Civil War. It prompted an intellectual debate about slavery.

But all in all, the biggest debate was over whether new states should be free states or slave states.

The breaking point was the election of Abraham Lincoln. He was the first Republican President. At this time, Republicans stood for anti-slavery. Abraham Lincoln was privately anti-slavery, but he did not believe that slavery should be completely outlawed yet. He thought it was more important that the Union remain whole. Only in the middle of the war, to give soldiers a new purpose, did he introduce the idea that this war was to free slaves.

Answer 2

The American Civil War started over State's Rights!!!

Answer 3

Economically, you had an industrialized North versus an agricultural South. The northerners had more political clout in congress and laws were passed that damaged the economy of the South. But that in itself was not the whole reason. The central cause was slavery. Increasingly, it polarized the nation. An earlier example would be "bloody Kansas" where the abolitionist settlers and the slave owning settlers did their best to kill each other. The South seceded and Abraham Lincoln made a decision to not accept it but to send in troops. Thus, the civil war.

Answer 4

Actually the seeds to civil war were sown just after the signing of the original constitution and in the beginning of the Federalist period. Once it was established that the central government could usurp individual state authority, it was only a matter of time until the sitting congress was pro-north or pro-south and thus impose restriction upon either the industralized north or the agriculture south to improve the lot of the people to whom the sitting congress owed their loyality.

Answer 5

It started because the South no longer wanted to be told what to do by the North and little did the South know what they going up against. And by that I'm not just talking about what all the north had but also the type of weather and illness in today's world is not a big deal but back in those days it could kill someone.

Answer 6

there was many causes to the civil war.

Over time the southern states didnt agree with northern laws, taxes, etc... They also had slaves who they needed for their farms and ways of life, while the north wanted to abolish slavery. The southern states also wanted to pretty much set up their own country, government etc... and the north didnt allow them to leave so they faught a war in which the north won... *brushes off shoulders* (im from PA)

Answer 7

there were many reasons that caused the civil war. its a broad topic that cannot be explained over here. however, here are the key issues that led to civil war.
1.State rights and slavery in the territories
2.Slavery
3.Rejection of Missouri compromise
4.writing of the book 'Uncle Tom’s Cabin'
5.Economy-South farm North Industrial
6.Secession due to distrust

Answer 8

Lincoln denied the constitutional rights of the south to succeed from the union. the north kept founding states that were slave free, so the Southern states looked west to Kansas. fighting between Missouri and Kansas took place long before the humiliation of the yankee army at the battle of bull run in 1861. the south looked to invade (many times) cuba and reserve it as a slave state, although repeatedly stopped by the federal navy. Remember, all 13 colonies declared independence from king george III separately, and many times someone from the south considered their state to be their country. politically speaking, in April of 1865 the US stopped being a constitutional republic and started being a federal republic.

Answer 9

According to Abraham Lincoln, it was the book Uncle Tom's Cabin... Really, there are several reasons, two of which are: the South wanted more control within each state (states' rights); the North wanted control, partly related to slavery.

Answer 10

we will never really know, history even though its ours, is written by the powers that be, my opinion, the north and its industry had slaves too, however, the south had more and cheap labor to boot, it was cheaper for the south to purchase goods from europe than it ws to buy from the north, the north just got greedy and said no more slavery to put the burden on the south, slave trading was considered to be one of the worst ventures to be in. the north on the other hand had many many european immigrants working in worse conditions than the slaves had, but that was never told in the books either