The civil war in America - Essay Example

?The American civil war occurred due to many social and economic differences between the North and the South. The South relying on cotton and slaveryhad a financial system supported by cash crops. There were no industries and factories in the South to produce weapons and bombs, their railroads were not organized therefore they could not move their foodstuff, armaments and men rapidly over elongated distances. Though agriculture flourished in south, farmers did not focus on generating enough food to nourish southern residents rather they focused more on cash crops such as tobacco and cotton. The North conversely had ample food for their citizens and sufficient industries to produce arsenal for their armed forces. Indeed, the northern industries were buying the unrefined cotton and converting it into finished merchandise. In addition it had a widespread railway network that could transfer men and military hardware swiftly and economically. This inequality between the two created a great divergence in economic outlooks. Primarily, this pre-eminence of the North didn't appear to make much discrepancy; like many battles in the past, those concerned thought it would be finished rapidly. But northern compensation would prove vital as the war commences. It was astonishment for the whole world that in spite of so weighty discrepancies in manpower and industrial competence, south nearly succeed in the war. There was no means that the South could probably have got up to the North, which had all of the stuff and monetary rewards, and which did an outstanding job of closing off the only benefit the South had: cotton. Because most of the South’s economy generated by exporting cotton, the North planned to put up the shutters of this trade. In order to shut up this trade the Union Government obstructed the southern ports, as a result of which the quantity of southern cotton supplied to England crashed down. And then the only reliable form of South’s income set off, which was frantically needed by South to beat the North. From the time of rebellion, two groups appeared: those quarrelling for better states rights and those quarrelling that the federal government required having more power. The first structured government of America was under the Articles of Confederation. And there was a slack confederation among the thirteen states with a very fragile federal government. Nevertheless when the troubles became more annoying, the fragility of this government awakened the leaders to unite and create clandestinely the US Constitution. However the strong supporters of the nation i.e. Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry were absent at this unification. Many people were of the idea that the new constitution did not give importance to the rights of the nation to carry on to operate autonomously. They believed that the states must have the right to fix on if they were ready to accept certain federal acts. This gave birth to the thought of nullification, where the states would have the right to regulate the federal acts as unauthorized. But the federal government disagreed upon giving this right to the states. However John C. Calhoun fought passionately for giving this right to the states. Even then nullification did not work and states sensed that they were not given reverence, they moved to secession. A question was also one of the reasons of occurrence of civil war in America. The question was about being slave or free of the states which were acquired by America from the Louisiana Purchase and Mexican war. The rule made by Missouri Compromise suggested that there would be prohibition on the slavery in states acquired from Louisiana Purchase. The clashes aroused during the Mexican war about the happening with new areas that are expected to be acquired by America on victory. David Wilmot suggested that slavery would be forbidden in the new lands. To treat the free and slave states, southern and northern welfare evenly a Compromise was prepared by Henry Clay and many others in 1850. Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 further augmented the stress because it created two new territories that would permit the states to take help from powerful sovereignties to decide whether they would be free or not. The genuine problem took place in Kansas where proslavery Missourians started to decant into the state to provoke it to be slave. They were known as "Border Ruffians." The fighting occurred in Lawrence Kansas was called "Bleeding Kansas." The fight was further exploded on the floor of the legislature when antislavery promoter Charles Sumner was hit on head by South Carolina's Senator Preston Brooks. Gradually the Northerners became more ignited against slavery. They became compassionated for abolitionists and against slaveholders. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, John Brown's Raid, and the Dred Scott Case are the events that caused individuals to haven escapee slaves albeit they were positioned in non-slave states. When Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860, southern were of the idea that he was anti-slavery and in support of northern benefits. Even before the presidency of Lincoln seven states had withdrawn from the Union, these are Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. These were the reasons which lead to American Civil War. Before the occurrence of civil war, the economic situation of Northern and Northwestern Americans became better than that of South and Southwestern American. During and before the war America was still an undeveloped farming country. Around three-quarter people resided in the countryside and small towns. Ninety percent of America's skillful workforce prevailed in North and labor force was found in South. In the North the labors were costly and energetic. Incursion of migrants from Asia and Europe brought competition in the labor market. African American slaves were fundamental players in Southern economy, however they were provided with cheap wages. The families who owned slaves in the South were known as farmers. The crucial economic issue the separated the North and the South was tariffs. Every time when federal government tried to lift up the tariffs, southern would disparate it and northern would support it, because southern had a fear that raised tariffs would cause their trading partners raise the price of finished goods imported by south to increase the profit margin. On the other hand North was in favor of high tariffs because that would increase the price of imported goods and the goods manufactured in North will be seen rather cheap. That way the people would want to buy cheaper goods rather than expensive ones. At the end of the war, south was economically distressed and suffered a widespread loss of human life. Nonetheless the economic problems gave rise to political issues as well. Civil war indicated the development of America economically and nationwise. Now when we have discussed that why civil war occurred, let’s discuss that whether west acted as a safety valve for the nation or it was just a bogus. The factory system in America started very late because there was a paucity of manufacturing assets and lack of free labor. After 1830 when factory system started flourishing in America, labors were hired for constructing railroads and water channels. In this situation safety valve was needed badly by the people of America. A safety valve is used when stress reaches at its zenith. And this zenith was also shown in 1877 when thousands of unwaged labors knew that there were free lands but at the same time they were aware of this bitter fact that they could not get the hold on them. This safety valve was steady and fixed during the great turmoil of labors in 1880. From 1830 to 1900 there was an era when no hindrance was placed in the way of peculiarity; it was an age of sloppy economy and easy retuning. The huge population in the west was obviously not produced by western farms on their own; they were definitely eastern farmers who provided primary inclination. Eastern farmers by going to west exhausted the eastern potential labour market. The eastern immigrants in the west did not only boost the industrial population but it was also seen that the native birth rate was equal in ratio to the new residents. Immigrants had a low class background which made the entire city labourer. Thus the safety valve was not working the way it should have worked. The safety valve should have been working in 1870s and 1880s when industrial issues were at their peak but this safety valve was loose and slack and did not show its potential. In 1890 large number of farmers moved to industrial centres and during the tough times the immigrant farmers did not sit at home instead they went to give their input. But this protest expired with the coming of new reforms. Cities were trailing their attraction and rural inclination started and this condition continued till 1930s and 1940s. After 1890 when drought came in the west, the farmers became perplexed and had no way to go. After all this many great things were discovered for irrigation and also many sorrows were suffered by the people and many issues regarding farmers were looked after. Nevertheless there was never a safety valve for industrial labours. The swift augmentation of industry and trade in the cities provided a release from excess farm population. The safety valve that truly survived worked in completely different direction from the one which is described in today’s world. Possibly the escalation of urban economy was brisk enough to take up most of the increasing population without volatile effect. There was no safety valve that could save people of the cities from brutal upsurges in gloominess. References “Economics of the Civil War” http://www.historycentral.com/CivilWar/AMERICA/Economics.html (accessed July 16, 2011) Kelly Martin. “Top Five Causes of the Civil War”. http://americanhistory.about.com/od/civilwarmenu/a/cause_civil_war.htm (accessed July 16, 2011) “A Post Mortem on The Labor-Safety Valve Theory.” http://www.ditext.com/shannon/shannon.html (accessed July 16, 2011) Read More