Reasons for American Civil War - Essay Example

Reasons for the American Civil War. The American remains to be known as the most devastating civil unrests in the history of America. The war was brought about as a result of disagreements between the Northern and Southern states, constitutional compromises at the very onset of Federal government formation, territorial conflicts and more importantly issues surrounding slavery. In this paper I will be disusing the various constitutional compromises leading to the American civil war and then move on to discuss the immediate causes of the actual war.

States in the south and those in the north followed different lines of development. Southern states pursued an agrarian economy at a time when the north was pursuing industrialization. This meant development of different social cultures and political ideologies and ultimately disagreements on over issues of taxation, trade tariffs and the question of state versus federal rights. A major conflict that disrupted the union was the debate concerning slavery and its future. The dispute over slavery resulted in a war where states in the north and west wanted preservation of the union while southern states were pushing for a new and independent confederation of southern states with its constitution.

The agrarian southern states largely relied on slaves to supply free labor while northern states were gradually abolishing slavery. A major constitutional compromise came in 1787 and would later be known as the Three-Fifths-Compromise over how to count slaves for purposes of determination total populations in states for the important reasons of taxation and elective representation. The south wanted slaves to be counted as full persons while the north opposed on the account that they did not have rights to vote.

A compromise was stricken to count “all other persons” as just 3/5 of their actual total number. The Compromise of 1850 is yet another one arrived at between the North and South diffusing a political disputed that had lasted four years surrounding the status of those territories that were acquired in the 1846-1846 Mexican-American War. The Fugitive Slave Act was therefore amended to abolish slave trade in Washing D.C, force Texas surrender its claims to New Mexico & its claims north of the Missouri Compromise Line, admit California to the union as a free state and prevent the adoption of the famous Wilmot Proviso.

The Missouri Compromise was also cantered on the same territories from the U.S-Mexican War which had heightened the debate on slavery. Abolished pushed to have slavery outlawed in the territories just the same way the Northwest Ordinance 1787 did in the territories that would later became Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan. Advocates on the other hand feared lose of political power that came with slaveholding and thus opposed illegalization. The Missouri Compromise therefore sought to strike a balance between the two sides.

Immediate causes of war in included formation of the new Republican Party which increased fears in the south that slavery would be outlawed everywhere. The election of President Abraham Lincoln in the year 1860 also served to heighten the fears was opposed to slavery. Secession of states in the south led by South Carolina which later influence six other states to terminate their contracts with the United States also played a major immediate role. The bleeding Kansaas contributed significantly to the onset of war despite the Kansa-Nebraska Act being passed.

Another immediate cause of war was the territorial expansion especially with the slavery expanding into the Western territories. It resulted in a very serious conflict. In my opinion, I believe the most important consequence of the Civil War was end of slavery. Works Cited.1. Edwin S. Grosvenor. “The Best of American Heritage: The Civil War.” New York City, Inc., 2015.