According to the dictionary, a revolution is defined as “an overthrow or repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed” and a civil war is defined as “a war between political factions or regions within the same country.” Then, these definitions lead us to a question: Is the Civil war a revolution? As the dictionary defines, through the American Civil War, the former political system was replaced by Union who won the war. First of all, slavery, which was one of the important reason of outbreak of the war, became illegal. In the beginning of the war, South first decided to secede from the Union due to difference of idea. Similarly, America secedes from Britain because two group had different policies and ideas, and this is called American Revolution. Another revolution, the French Revolution also shares the characteristics of revolution with the American Civil War.
The American Civil War technically started in January of 1861 when the South seceded from the Union. Right after Abraham Lincoln was elected in November of 1860, South Carolina was threatened by the fact that Lincoln was anti-slavery. Along with South Carolina, six other southern states seceded from the Union and caused tension between North and South to aggregate. The reason for this secession was that these Southern states required slave labor in order to manage their agricultural economy but the Union, which did not require as many slaves as Confederacy, decided to suppress slavery because (it is morally wrong)- SOURCE. Because of different opinions on slavery, the two groups began to fight and started the war. Likewise, the beginning of the American Revolution was when the Americans wanted to break up with Britain and establish a new government with their own policy.
The South established their own government called the Confederacy and elected Jefferson Davis as the president. The first actual battle that started the Civil war occurred in Fort Sumter. When Union refused to surrender Fort Sumter which is located in South Carolina, South Carolina sent troops to seized the fort and on April 12, the actual Civil War begins in Fort Sumter and the fort was eventually surrender to South Carolina. The first battle between the Union and Confederacy happened in July of 1861, and the battle is named First Battle of Bull Run. The battle was initiated by General-in-Chief Winfield Scott who ordered General McDowell to attack on Confederacy troops. The battle was successful in the beginning but after Confederacy reinforced their troop, the result came out to be retreat to Washington by federal troops. Through several wars and issuing policies, the war kept on going without definite winner. All the battles resulted in countless deaths and injuries. The American Civil War had the most deaths and wounds among all the wars that America had. The number of deaths and wounds in Civil War far exceeds that of the American Revolution. Looking at the world history, most revolutions had countless deaths and wounds. One of the character of revolutions is having a huge number of deaths and the number changes depend on the scale of the revolution. The larger the scale is, the larger the number of deaths.
In political view, there was also an invisible “war” between North and South. For example, there were states that remained neutral throughout beginning of the Civil War called border states, some of which are slave-states and others are anti-slave states. Because of these slave-states, Abraham could not declare the total abolition of slavery but soon, in January 1, 1863, Emancipation Proclamation, which claims that all slaves in rebelling states are free. Confederacy did not go along with Emancipation Proclamation, but this event influenced South in a bad way. For example, slaves now can run away from their masters and be complete free if they successfully escape to the North. Therefore, many slaves ran away, which caused South to be alerted. This is huge step for the Union to take since slavery was taken for granted before and it was one of the most important source of labor in South.
Finally, in the beginning of 1865, the Confederacy started to fall because of the shortage of supplies and starving soldiers. Soon, three months later, General Lee of the Confederacy was surrounded by Union's troop and was offered to surrender. On April 9, the two generals of both sides met and the Civil War ended. Of course, other troops of Confederacy continued to remain to fight against the Union. Soon, they were defeated and Jefferson Davis was captured on May 10. Going through countless battles and negotiation, North won the war and finally, the abolition was issued. The result of the American Civil war was a huge change in history of United States. The abolition itself overthrew the political order in South. Plus, the aftereffect of banning slavery was huge too. Slave was a “human capital” of Southern landowners but the emancipation granted the ownership to slaves themselves. Also, the income of former slaves increase more than before, which resulted in increasing power of black people in United States. When considering the results of the war, abolition, the Civil War already have a character of revolution. One of the most important political system changed due to the war.
When comparing Civil War with American revolution, there were many similarities between them. Not only American revolution shares similarities but also, the French Revolution does have similarities with Civil War. The French Revolution started from the complaints and unfair tax for lower class in France. The peasants overthrew their monarchy and successfully changes their type of government. During the revolution, countless citizens had been killed from the counter-revolution movements. Some of French nobles who were exiled from France were convincing other European countries to save France from the revolution. Scared that their own countries might experience the same revolution, other European countries decided to help France, which lead to a huge bloodshed in France. Comparing only death tolls of both, death toll of the American Civil war, which is 618,000, exceeds the number of death in France, which is 434,700. Also, even after French revolution, the democracy did not last long. Napoleon Bonaparte control France with dictatorship. Also, slavery that was banned by the French Revolution was later recovered by Napoleon. Nothing that was achieved by the Civil War was later recovered. However, after the French Revolution, the government had changed and slavery had been recovered, which shows that the Civil War is more like a revolution than the French Revolution.
Comparing the American Revolution and the American Civil War, there are many similarities between them and in some cases, Civil War looks more like revolution than the American Revolution. From the beginning, the cause of both wars is similar in that they both started the war due to different point of view and needs among two groups. Both resulted in countless deaths and a huge change in America, which overthrew existing policies or government. American Revolution led to establishing United States of America and Civil War led to forming a new type of government and the changing of policies. Not only the American revolution but also the French Revolution overthrew the existing social orders and their own type of government. However, unlike French Revolution which later got counter revolution, the Civil War maintained their aftereffects and their purpose of having a war. However, one is called civil war and the other is called revolution.
This quote leads to conclude, Civil War partially overthrew existing political and social rule in South just like English revolution of 1640’s and French Revolution of 1790’s. None of these revolutions had the impact of Civil War as they were followed up with counter revolutions which lead to restoration of monarchy. Thus Civil War deserves the title of a revolution as much as the French or British revolutions. Civil War also lead to a counterrevolution in 1870’s which combined violence from Whites in South along with the revival of Democratic party in Northern States and increasing indifference of Republicans from North towards southern blacks plight. This counterrevolution helped in overthrowing racial equality’s experiment but failed to restore the old order of slavery. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were not repealed.
References
McPherson, James M. “Some Thoughts of the Civil War as the Second Revolution”.
Rbhayes, Web. 17 Oct 2013.
Wilson, Elise Stevens. “Colonists Divided: A Revolution and a Civil War”.
Gilderlehrman, Web. 17 Oct 2013.
Breen, Timothy H. “The American Revolution as Civil War”. America in Class from National Humanities Centre. Americainclass. Web. 17 Oct 2013.
