Root Causes Oft He Civil War: Example Essay By An Expert Writer To Follow

In the first half of the XIX century, in the United States, there developed two systems – slavery in the south and capitalism in the north. These were two completely different socio-economic systems which coexisted in one country. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the United States was (as well as remains now) a federal country. The integration processes among states were rather slow. Therefore, the South where slavery and agrarian economic system were common, and the industrial North were slowly splitting away into two separate economic regions.
The differences between the northern and southern states were rather significant. In the north, enterprises of mechanical engineering, metalworking, light industry were concentrated. Population of north was 71% of the whole population of the US, total length of northern railroads reached up to 72% of the whole US railroad mileage (Doc C). There were 85% of all American factories located in the north (Doc C). At the same time, economically developed North was very much dependent on the agrarian South. Cotton, tobacco and sugar were major goods exported by the USA to Europe. However, it was the south that provided Europe with these goods. Almost all cotton produced in the South was exported not directly from the Southern states, and from the North and at a price appointed by the North. For example, in 1857, the US exported $279 million worth of domestic produce, out of which $158 million worth was the clear produce of the South (Doc E). At the same time, the North was exporting machinery and industrial products to the South. This led to the fact that the South, which was forced to sell raw materials to the North at a very cheap price but to buy industrial products from the North at a very high price, sought the way-out not to depend on the North economically (Doc D).
Further, an important question arose of whether the southerners could have a right to self-determination. As John C. Calhoun, Senator from South Carolina, wrote “a State, as a party to the constitutional compact, has the right to secede,- acting in the same capacity in which it ratified the constitution All this results, necessarily, from the nature of a compact between sovereign parties” (Doc F). It seems rather just that the population of the southern states that did not want to be controlled by Union government, had intentions to secede. This was done by the southern states in 1861 which formed the Confederacy.
All these sentiments were visible long before the Civil War. One of such implications was tensions in Kansas which are known as Bleeding Kansas (1854-1858). This was a proxy war in which contradictions between the regions of the country appeared in the form of military confrontation and later grew into a total and full-scale war (Doc K). Clashes occurred after slave owners from Missouri and other slave states went to Kansas in large quantities to vote and to introduce there slavery. However, there were thousands on northerners who rejected such an initiative. In 1855, armed conflict broke out between warring factions. Partisan detachments under the leadership of John Brown and others were fighting against slavery supporters (Doc K).