Why was the Civil war ..?

Question

Why was the civil war the most defining moment in americas histroy ?

will choose a best answer ..

Thank you in advance
Chriisy

Answer 1

Abraham Lincoln said in 1858 "A nation cannot survive half slave and half free." Unfortunately, it took 500,000 deaths to prove he was right.

The Gettysburg Address explains far better than any of us posting can why the Civil War was so important.
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/gadd/

Answer 2

The Civil War was about far more than slavery. By 1861 the country had divided into three basic regions. The Northeast, The South and the West. The West early on had generally gone with the South for economic reasons. Most of their crops went down the Mississippi to New Orleans and were then transshipped to the East Coast or on to Europe. Transportation did not really exist across the Appalachians. The Erie Canal began to change that. Commerce through the Great Lakes became a shorter route and therefore more profitable. Also the canal carried immigrants West to new and cheaper land. Most immigrants did not consider the South, it was not possible to compete with slave labor. So the commercial connection began to tie the West to the Northeast. The election of Lincoln was demonstrate this new tie in.

The railroads also began to connect between the West later n the century. Southerners did not really get into the RR business for a long time. They had their rivers which were broad and slow moving. Shipping on these rivers was cheap.

The North began to build larger and larger cities, the South really have any. New Orleans was large but only because of all the commerce coming down the river. These Northern cities were to be industrial centers. When the Industrial Revolution came to America i was mostly the Northeast. Southern leaders did not like industry, it was dirty and gentlemen did not deal with such things.

When the Civil War did break out then most of the West went with the Union, their trading partners. Plus their cultural ties to the place from whence they had migrated .

The North and the West had also democratized. Just about all Northern and Western states had universal male suffrage (the right to vote) and it was shown in legislatures as some of humble beginnings rose to influence. The South was still in the hands of the planter class and had fallen far behind in democratization. Education had also changed the regions. Education was rather rare in the South, except for the well heeled. Children of the poorer classes were simply not given the opportunity to be educated. In the North the emphasis in churches on personal religion led to a need for reading as a way to read and interpret the Bible.

So we see a widening gap between the states in addition to the slave issue. The Civil War then served to change it all. The U.S. took on an urban, manufacturing and highly served by transportation in forming modern the Modern U.S.

Answer 3

It showed that any lands of the United States, once they ARE a part of the United States, cannot be removed FROM the United States...even under military action. I'm surprised no one else seems to get this. I guess no one studies the causes of the "Civil War" any more. Either that, or they are using faulty, ignorant, and/or biased sources. That is, if one even accepts "the civil war" as "the most defining moment in americas histroy". The winning of the American Revolution, the destruction of the institution of slavery, and the winning of World War II all could qualify in many minds as such.

BTW, it DIDn't cause the federal government to become more than a conglomeration of states with a more centralized power. To claim that would be to minimize the Constitution, which took the place of the Articles of Confederation, which gave the federal government more centralized power than the United States formerly had.

Answer 4

The civil war was the most defining moment because it was a war that divide the country between wrong (slavery) and right. This war was fought on ther grounds that all men should be created equal but instead this country contradicted itself. This war gave African Americans the right to be free and own land a right that should have been given to them in the first place. Without the Civil WAr there wouldn't have been Open heart surgery invented by a black man no traffic lights, Capital Dc was designed by a black man , so without the civil war there wouldn't be alot of stuff around that what makes it one of the defining moments.

Answer 5

Dear Chrissy: Good question. The study of the Civil War will help you better understand our country today. Although we had been a country for 80+ years, the issue of slavery had never been resolved (think 3/5 compromise), and was driving the two sides further apart, free vs. slave. The Civil War did a number of things, two of which define us to this day: first it did away with slavery and set us on a path of equal rights which we're still traveling on today. Second: it brought together this country with one very powerful federal government and chief executive, rather than a conglomeration of states.

Answer 6

nicely i'd imagine that the yankee Revolution is reported as that and not in any respect as a civil conflict because we were no longer truly portion of england yet a series of colonies looking for independence. We were attempting to develop into an self sufficient united states as adverse to taking on Britain itself. The Civil conflict in spite of the undeniable fact that composed of two separate countries replaced into truly between 2 factions of a similar united states. The union purpose replaced into to maintain the southern states that had left the union. united states not in any respect truly recongnized the south as yet another united states, nor (i have self assurance) did the different united states. in the yankee Revolution France recognized us. Had the Confederacy received the conflict it may have then develop right into a revolution in the journey that they desirous to stay a separate united states and not in any respect overtake Lincoln's authorities. Had they taken over the different authorities then it may have nevertheless been a civil conflict. The defination of civil conflict is that both waring aspects come from a similar soverign united states.

Answer 7

Rather than the “most” defining moment in America’s History, it might be more correct to view the American War of the Eighteen Sixties as “one” of the most defining moments in the formation of the modern United States.

As some historians have pointed out, prior to that war the common phrase when referring to the United States was “these United States.” After the war the phrase “The United States” came into common usage. This was not simply a matter of preferred grammar, but reflected a real change in the structure of the country.

The Articles of Confederation came about due to the necessities of the time which in no small part required a common face of these various States to gain foreign recognition and support in the war with England. What was created in haste to fight a war, functioned poorly in peace. It was not a forgone conclusion that this Confederation should continue after the war was run or even that there was a need for these “Sovereign” States to continue accept as separate countries. As an end to the war, in 1783 the Treaty of Peace was signed between Great Britain and the these United States as represented in mass by the Articles of Confederation. In Article One each individual State was mentioned are referred to as Free, Independent, and Sovereign. This world acceptance of the States was further enhanced by the time of the Convention in 1787 in that each of these Free, Independent, and Sovereign States wrote and ratified there own Constitution.

Ratification of the new Constitution did not reject that position of Free, Independent, and Sovereign States. Further, the act of each State debating and ratifying the new Constitution to join the new union necessitated at the same time a secession from the existing Articles of Confederation. This meant that even though the new Constitution created a new general government with greater powers than existed under the Articles of Confederation, those powers were specifically limited to the delegated powers within the Constitution, that in all other areas the States maintained their Free, Independent and Sovereign powers and that emanating from that position, and the act of leaving the Articles of Confederation, the Right of the States to secede was maintained as an existing precedent.

Not all agreed with such an interpretation of the Constitution (and what had gone before) but such as Madison and Jefferson did in their writing of the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions. They also supported the States’ right to nullify federal actions within the borders of their individual States as extra-Constitutional.

This difference of Constitutional interpretation continued with the split growing through the first 70 odd years post Constitutional ratification. This was one of the primary (in my opinion the primary) causes of the American War of the Eighteen Sixties.

During the war President Lincoln ran rough shod over the Constitution with such as suspending habeas corpus (a Constitutional Act not an executive one), disregarding the States’ right to secede, and placing northern politicians in jail (without due process) for speaking against the war. A case could be made that this was some of the worse extra-Constitutional acts since President Jackson and surely the worse since President Adams and the Alien and Sedition Acts.

With the war being won by the federal government the Constitution was rewritten, not by the process of the amendment (as the Founders design) but by the blood of war. This changed the nation from one of a voluntary Union of States to one of a near dictatorial federal government acting out side of Constitutionally delegated powers.

Answer 8

America was about to become a divided country, to become two countries instead of one, over the issue of slavery. It was a dark time in America's history when families turned against each other because of their differing opinions and points of view regarding this devastating subject.

Abraham Lincoln's heart was not so much on eliminating slavery as it was on being determined that America would remain the "United" States.

Answer 9

The spilling of blood to end slavery made a powerful statement - - - as well as making it clear that once a State joined the Unionit stayed in the Union no matter what efftively ending any future effort by a state or region to succeed.. It also hammered down the Principal that The President ultimately rules, if left to Congress The South would have been allowed to go, it was Abraham Lincoln who argued loudest & most effectively for Union - - - oddly enough this principal guides Geo W, he is The Decider, the Heck with Congress or anyone else - - --

Peace.....

Answer 10

It perserved our Federal government. If the South had won, Federalism would've been destroyed and slavery would still exist. The world we know today truely stood in the ballance in the Battle of Antietem. If the South had won the battle, Britain and France would've intervined ,like today in Iraq, and came in on the South's side. For more info go to http://www.wikipedia.org