There are a host of factors that can be said to have caused the Civil War among them being the refusal of the union at fort Sumter to surrender after an order to do so had been issued by Brigadier General Beauregard, infringement of civil liberties, the formation of own government by the southerners and the Lincoln inauguration speech. The cessation acts by the southerners led to apprehension within the country and the states1.
The Lincolns speech was taken as not seriously considering the southerners and the later felt that Lincoln could not articulate comprehensively the issues regarding their civil rights which had already been a thorny issue. Subsequently, the Southerners felt that Lincoln could only favor the interests of the North to the detriment of southern2. It is for this reason that the southerners followed the way of North Carolina which had declared secession. Their secession was referred by Lincoln as a rebellion and this would rightly be said to be the trigger of the attack of Fort Sumter hence the civil war.
However, it is not the events at Fort Sumter only that gave rise to the civil war rather other more convincing triggers such as the civil liberties infringements which were by far superior reasons that prompted the war. The civil war could therefore have happened come what may. For instance, when the Union which was controlling Fort Sumter refused to obey orders by Brigadier General Beauregard, the Confederacy forces opened fire on Sumter despite the firing not having been sanctioned by the whole of the confederacy. The firing was just a trigger incident of what was already a time bomb and the war was inevitable3.
Works Cited
http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/civilwarintheeast/p/fortsumter.htm
http://history1800s.about.com/od/civilwar/a/fort-sumter-attack.htm
