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Economic causes of civil war in America
Economic causes of civil war in America
Economic causes of civil war in America
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Politicians from the North and South must have also argued over the economic different facing the two parts of the United States. Throughout the late 1800s the Northern economy was striving due to its industrial success. The yearly value of manufactured goods in the North as of 1861 was $1,500,000,000 as illustrated in the charts found in Document B, created by Allen Weinstein and R. Jackson Wilson. This was nearly ten times more than the manufacturing in the South revealing the differences in the economy. Leading up to the Civil War, the South was mainly focused on its cotton production. In contrast, the North was working on its industrial manufactures by strongly promoting and employing people to work in their factories. Around this time …show more content…
the North also began building an abundance of railroads allowing them to transport their goods with ease. Many felt that the South was relying on the North for most of their income. This could have made the Southerners want to form their own nation so that they could produce their own wealth, but since they had fewer food supply, factories and overall population, they were facing many complications with their succession.
Even Hinton Helper, a political writer from the South, acknowledged that the North was necessary for the economic and industrial aspects of the South. “It is a fact well known to every intelligent Southerner that we are compelled to go to the North for almost every article of utility and adornment...”(Document C). If the opposing side even admitted to the hardships they were facing then it must have been a serious problem. Hinton truly believed that the North was essential to the well-being of the entire nation. In contrast, most Southerners thought that they could rely on their cotton production, and that the North’s industrial success wouldn’t affect them. In contrast, Senator James Hammond believed that the South was very crucial to the North’s economic success. He believed that the South provided the North with much of their exports such as tobacco and cotton. “There is no doubt that we sent to the North $40,000,000... If I am right in my calculations, ...there is no nation on earth, with any numerous population, that can compete with us on produce per capita.” (Document
D). Hammond definitely portrayed a much a different view on the South’s industrial situation. The way he saw it was that the North received all of their exports from the South. Since the South was the main producer of cotton for the world in 1857, many felt that the South should have been making more money. This assurance probably made the Confederacy more confident in their decision to secede from the United States. If what Hammond said about the cotton production being crucial to the North’s economy is true, then the Union would surely want back the South and be willing to fight for them back. Whatever the situation was truly like, it is clear that there were definitely differences in economy that contributed to the progression of the Civil War.
In “Antebellum Southern Exceptionalism: A New Look at an Old Question” James McPherson argues that the North and the South are two very different parts of the country in which have different ideologies, interests, and values. Mcpherson writes this to show the differences between the north and the south. He gives perspectives from other historians to show how the differently the differences were viewed. These differences included the north being more industrialized while the south was more agricultural. He gives evidence to how the differences between the north and south came together as the south produced tobacoo, rice, sugar and cotton, which was then sent to the north to be made into clothing or other fabrics. Mcpherson analyzes the differences
Valley Forge, was the toughest obstacle the Continental Army had to face during the Revolutionary War. For about nine months in the cold winter, these soldiers stayed in this area for them to"... be close enough to Philadelphia to keep an eye on the British"(Background). By the end of the war, the colonists were victorious in gaining their independence. Regardless, I would abandon my position as a soldier at Valley Forge. My reasoning are due to the multiple hardship they endure such as living in a harsh environment, sickness that lead to death and lacked numerous resources.
The North had a very different opinion of the American way and made it exceedingly clear with the formation of numerous abolition societies, effectively abolishing slavery across the northern region and allowing blacks to live as productive members society, rather than its the property. Even one of the most prominent slave holders of that time was forced to rethink the legitimacy of slavery. “Seeing free black soldiers in action undermined [George] Washington’s racial prejudice and ultimately his support for slavery itself” (Finkelman 18). The productivity, societal and political benefits, and military empowerment made available by freed slaves challenged the South’s sense of racial supremacy, thus they began to establish a defense against the complete abolition of
The North entered the Civil War with many distinct assets that rendered them more competent than the Southern states. Those assets consisted of having more men, more financial stability, economic strength, and far reaching transportation systems. According to the book: Why the North Won the Civil War by Donald, David Herbert, and Richard Nelson the primary cause to the North’s success was given by, “the vast superiority of the North in men and materials, in instruments of production, in communication facilities, in business organization and skill – and assuming for the sake of the argument no more than rough quality in statecraft and generalship – the final outcome seems all but inevitable.” In many ways the north, during the Civil, was more economically dominant than the South
...f wearing down the north's patience. The south's idea of northerns as "city slickers" who did not know how to ride or shoot was wrong. Many of the men who formed the Union forces came from rural backgrounds and were just as familiar with riding and shooting as their southern enemies. Finally, the south's confidence in its ability to fund through sales of export crops such as cotton did not take into consideration the northern blockade. France and Britain were not willing to become involved in a military conflict for the sake of something they had already stockpiled. The help the south had received from France and Britain turned out to be a lot less than they expected. In conclusion, while all the south's reasons for confidence were based on reality, they were too hopeful. The south's commitment to a cause was probably what caused their blindness to reality.
In the South, however, the economy was predominantly agricultural. Cotton and tobacco plantations relied heavily on the free labor of slaves for their economic prosperity. They saw the urbanization and industrialization of the North, and the economic connection between the North a...
Throughout the early parts of the century the North had heavily concentrated on industrial improvement while the South had mostly concentrated on agricultural means. This proved to be of great significance, as the two sides would find themselves in a high cost and high demand war. During the onset of the war the "North contained 80% of total U.S. industry" (Rivera pg.1), and many of these production facilities were quickly and easily transformed in order to support the demands of the military. The South on the other hand had very few production facilities and most of them lay along the contested Border States, and they lost most of these facilities when West Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware opted to...
The North had about 2,129,000 soldiers while the South only has about 1,082,000 soldiers in their army. This means that in almost every battle in the civil war the South was being overpowered by the Norths numbers alone. The North's economy was much stronger than the Souths. The North's economy got so powerful because of their large amount of small farms and large factories. The North's production value was about $1.5 billion meanwhile the Souths was only about $155 million.
Why the North Won the Civil War, edited by David Herbert Donald, is a short collection of six essays. Each essay argues from a different perspective as to why the Confederate States of America could not defeat the Union in the American Civil War. The factors considered for Confederate defeat include: economics, military strategy, diplomacy, ideology, and politics. In the end, the most convincing argument is given by Richard N. Current regarding economics.
The Union economy was based on manufacturing, and even the minorities in the North were better off than those in the South most of the time. The Northern politicians wanted tariffs, and a large army. The Southern plantation owners wanted the exact opposite.
The most important difference between the north and south was the issue of slavery. The South was primarily agricultural, and the southern economy was based upon the existence of large family farms known as plantations. The plantation economy relied on cheap labor in the form of slaves to produce tobacco and cotton. Farmers on the plantation did not do the work themselves; they needed slaves in order to make the largest amount of money possible. The North, however, was primarily industrial in nature. The North believed that all men should be able to work and support themselves and their families, regardless of color. They also felt that if a man were happy doing his job, then he would be more productive. Therefore, both he and the business would make more money.
Of all the areas with which the southerners contended, the socio-political arena was probably their strongest. It is in this area that they had history and law to support their assertions. With the recent exception of the British, the slave trade had been an integral part of the economies of many nations and the slaves were the labor by which many nations and empires attained greatness. Souther...
...iled to gain the recognition of the European nations, North's superior resources made the outcome inevitable, and moral of the South towards the end of the war. The Civil War was a trying time for both the North and the South alike, but the question of its outcome was obvious from the start. The North was guaranteed a decisive victory over the ill-equipped South. Northerners, prepared to endure the deficit of war, were startled to find that they were experiencing an enormous industrial boom even after the first year of war. To the South, however, the war was a draining and debilitating leech, sucking the land dry of any appearance of economical formidability. The debate continues whether or not the South could have won the Civil war. It’s always going to be a bunch of “what ifs?”
A Major cause of the Civil War was the economic tensions between the northern states that wanted to outlaw slavery, and the southern states that wanted to expand and allow slavery to prosper. One example of the economic strain between the North and the South was in Documents 2 and 3. Document 2 shows pie graphs, that represent the population between the North and the South. The pie graphs also show the amount of total population, slave population, industrial worker population, amount of yearly manufactured value, amount of railroad mileage, amount of cotton bales, and the amount of bushels of corn. Document 2 is comparing the strong and weak sides of both the northern and southern economy. In addition, the document also represents what each economy depends on. For example, the North has produced 59% of all the corn in the country, while the South only produced 41% of the corn. This shows that the North was able to grow most of the corn, while the South was able to produce all of the cotton in the count...
Especially since the South had 11 states within its territory, compared to the North containing 23 states. While the North’s “industrialists invested in the expansion of railroads and textile mills, ” the South’s economy relied heavily on cotton farming (Lecture 8/29). But when taxes on imported and exported goods began, this negatively affected the Southern economy and improved the Northern economy. In consideration of the South depending on selling cotton overseas and the North being increasingly industrialized, the South’s profits began to decrease, through the encouragement that America should trade within sections of the country. To further the economic cause of the civil war, it was apparent that “the trade balance was in favor of the North” (Fontanilla). With cotton being the backbone of the Southern economic strength, many feared that without slavery, every aspect of Southern would go down and life would turn into shambles. All of the South felt threatened by the abolition of slavery and the fading economy in their states, which added more fuel for Confederates and Unionists to go to