The American Civil War popularly known as the War between States is was fought between the United States of America (USA) - the North and the other southern states which were demanding secession from the union to form their own "Confederacy" or the "South"). It was fought between the years 1861 to 1865 (Ford, R.J., 2001).
Causes
This war was caused by a combination of the following long and short term causes:
Besides, there was protectionism situation between the southern and northern states. This was characterized by different economic prowess between the two regions. Whereas the north was advanced in its economy, the southern region was still lagging behind. In other words, the northern states already had well established industries in which they would manufacture finished products. However, the southern states did not have industries. Since they had not adopted mechanization, everything was done by a manual labor. This coupled with the stiff competition from the well established European industries, compelled the north to enforce protectionism and tariff laws which did not favor the southerners. In the long run it fueled the outbreak of the war.
The other cause for this war was the Mexican-American War which was fought between USA and the United Mexican States between the years 1846 to 1848. Although it was fought much earlier, it eventually contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War since it disengaged Texas from being a committed member of the larger USA union. In fact, by the time of the elections of President Lincoln (which was of course the immediate cause of the war), stats such as Texas had already seceded from the union. The same explanation also applies for the consequences of US Western Expansion which led to the acquisition of the territories including Carolina. When an opportune time reached, they had to succeed.
Lastly, slavery had been a very emotive issue causing a lot of political tensions between the northern and southern states for a very long time. While the southerners were interested in owning slaves and using them anywhere, the northerners were opposed to this. In fact, several legislations were enforced to ensure that this did not happen. For instance, the Republican Party pledged to end the expansion of slaves to the northern states. This as particularly manifested when Abraham Lincoln was elected as the president of USA in 1860 (Jackman, S.J. & William C. D., 2002). His election marked the immediate cause of the war because he was perceived as anti-slavery. More over, he was keener on advancing the interests of the north which would obviously be unfavorable to the northern states.
Works Cited
Ford, R.J. (2001) History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 to the McKinley-
Bryan Campaign of 1896. Vol (2 )1856–60.
Jackman, S.J. & William C. D. (2002). Diary of a Confederate Soldier: John S. Jackman of the
Orphan Brigade. University of South Carolina Press.
Rodriguez, J.J. (2008) The Literatures of the U.S.-Mexican War: Narrative, Time, and Identity.
Texas: University of Texas Press.
