US Civil War
The civil war was a result of southern slave states made a declaration of their secession which also resulted to the formation of the Confederate States of America. Therefore, the fractious issue in the war was basically slavery especially when there was notable expansion of the trade to the territories on the west. There was never received any intervention from foreign powers. Almost all the infrastructure of the South was destroyed, more than 600,000 soldiers died, there was abolishment of slavery and collapse of the confederacy all occurred during the bloody combat. After all this, the US endured hardships and difficulty in the attempts of guaranteeing and providing rights to the slaves and also attempts to restore national unity and peace.
The Republicans who were led by Abraham Lincoln joined hands as they opposed any possible expansion of slavery in the United States. Following his inauguration, seven states mainly owned by slaves formed a Confederacy. The republicans were unanimously against secession and they considered it as being illegal. In his first speech as president, Lincoln publicly stated that his government would not initiate any civil war. The peace conference that they organized to prevent any occurrence of civil war failed in providing compromise resulting to the two conflicting sides making preparations for war. Confederates operated under the assumption that there would be intervention from the European giants but this never happened.
Confederate forces introduced the hostilities of the war when they attacked Fort Sumter which was a hearty fort held by union troops who dwelled in the South of Carolina. Lincoln was up in action to urge each and every state to avail troops that would engage in attempts to retake the fort. As a result, there were four states that decided to join the Confederacy therefore increasing the number to eleven. The southern economy was crippled by the naval blockade established by this states and also due to the control by the Union on border states. From a more personal perspective, if the Confederate had engaged in unconventional tactics, they would have been in a good position to exhaust the Union through holding them out.
The Battle of Antietam ended the Confederate campaign in Maryland which caused dissuasion of the intervention by Britain. Looking at this incidence as an example amongst other major happenings, it is agreeable that in the civil war, American nationalism triumphed while there was optimal collapse and death of Confederate nationalism. This can still be witnessed in the current world where the South which was once a rich region grew poorer for more than one century whereas both the West and the North blossomed. The nationwide political power that was mainly held by rich southerners and slave-owners all ended. Those who had been slaves were now referred to as the Freedmen as they were offered freedom for the control of their personal lives, the churches of their own choices, their families and most of all, citizenship.
This American Civil war goes on paper as the earliest industrial wars in the land. It witnessed the extensive employment of amongst others steamships, the telegraph, railroads and weaponry as well. The World War I was even overshadowed by the witnessed mobilization of food supplies, banks, transportation, shipyards, mines and civilian factories. It is thus recorded as one of the deadliest war in the US history. The death tolls were very high in both Southern and Northern America.
