American History and the Civil War - Assignment Example

American history and the Civil War. The American Civil War has been approved as one of the notorious catastrophic events by most of the historians. It has been acknowledged as one of the man main disaster in the history of the America. The Civil war has been the cruelest war in America; it took more than six hundred thousand lives. Now, even after one hundred and forty five years there are some questions in the researchers and historians mind, and the pivotal question is “was the War Avoidable at that time or it was irresistible?” There could have been some solution or alternatives like The League of Nations, The United Nations or may be the idea of world government. This particular paper would take an attempt to find out the reasons of the devastating war. Introduction: The American civil war significantly linked with the slavery. The collected data show that more than six hundred lives lost in the catastrophic event. The art of war was rewritten after the civil war. The most vital point is what was the final out come to the human’s civilization after the civil war, what they got after fighting for their bloods. This paper is all about justifying the after effect of the civil war and to find out the alternative thoughts instead of war. The brief about the civil war: To analyze the causes of the American Civil War it is very important to go through the brief history of the American Civil War (1861-65). The pre-math of the American Civil War started in 1859 by John brown, and it out-broke as a war in 1861. The Civil war was the combined effect of more than ten thousands military actions of one kind or another. The numbers of actions were seen in different states and the numbers were distributed as 2,154 in Virginia, 1,462 in Tennessee, 1,161 in Missouri, 772 in Mississippi, 336 in Alabama, 549 in Georgia, 771 in Arkansas and many more small war events in Kentucky, South Carolina, North Carolina, Florid, Texas, California, Etc. 1 In the history of the art of military the American Civil had shown a great endeavor, it has changed the art of military actions. The American Civil War shares a distinctive place with that of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars. 2 The American Civil War has been taken as the fundamental change in the warfare caused by the democratization and the industrial revolution. Walter Millis 3 has shown that war was losing its own redeemed virtue: “the ability to reach a rapid action”. As per the European standards, America was a primitive and long spread land”; one of the most sticking features of the American land was the immensity of the territory that was within the country’s borders. The two main theaters of the war were the Northern Virginia and the valley of the Mississippi River. Was the American Civil War avoidable? One of the most important researches about the American Civil War is to fine out the answer for the question-“was the American Civil War avoidable or repressible?” it is a big argument among the many researchers whether it was avoidable or irresistible or irrepressible. 1. American Civil War Summery. “Americancivilwar.com ”. 2. Griess Thomas E, p,1. 3. Walter Millis was the renowned historian who wrote many books in war. He was the writer for “The Road to War: America 1914-1917. (1935.) Well, many researchers have shown many results related to this. War is among the irrational exercises, it is the reason for the unwanted human slaughter, environmental pollution and also the industrial demolition. For many researchers it is a true fact that war is definitely avoidable. Many think that the American Civil War was avoidable with the implementation of functional bodies like The League of Nations, The United Nations and the Idea of a world government. These facts could have been the alternatives for the War. 4 From the minds of many liberals it has come to the view point that peace is the ultimate solution for many problems, and war is among them. The peace would be established when the humanity will win the race against the vicious thoughts of the war mongers. The war could have avoided if the common human goals were calculated in a systematic manner and the cooperation in a planed fashion among the parties were given an importance. The organizational conflicts were the inevitable facts but with the proper cooperation the American Civil War could have avoided if the proper cures would have found eventually. And those were peace, humanity and the approach towards the common goal. The United States was the one and only society that had fought to get rid off the slavery. The political conflicts led to the region division: The American Civil War (1861-1865) has been portrayed as one of the battle fields where the human slaughter took place. During the 1859 when John Brown invaded and raided Harpers Ferry, he set the motion events which directly led to the outbreak of the American civil war in 1861. There were many reasons for the outcome of the bloodiest was in the history of America 4. Donohue William A, p, 124. and the world, and that was the outcome of the American Civil War. The political reason was the main reason for the devastating act. The political background of the Civil War was started during 1619 to 1830 when the twenty chained and exhausted survivors weak for the starvation, frightened and confused were taken to the shores of Jamestown, Virginia. These unfortunate people were grouped in hundreds. There were Africans stolen from Spanish slave ship, these men were traded for the exchanged for food. The August of 1619 was the time from when the intolerable slavery started 5 In 1808 the Congress finally passed the bill for the African slave trade to be effective. 6 It was extremely difficult to ignore the effects of the political references for the Civil War. After the Abraham Lincoln was selected for the presidency the crisis for secession was alarmingly high. The political environment was very much agitated. At that time the nation was reaching to the point where all crisis and socio-economic differences about to push the whole nation to ignite the accumulative agitations to create a major political calamity. The outbreak of the war was directly connected with the fragile political structure. The structure of the politics was directly linked with the emotions of the normal civilians of the United States. The hostile political environment took the path to the Civil War. 7 the political influences were very much strong, it had been seen that wherever there were political influences there was a political clamor. There were more than ten different nation armies and many different operations were taken place. Different military groups used to have different goal sets. However, the Confederates used have the powerful position. 8 5. Calore Paul, p, 5. 6. Calore Paul, p, 5. 7. Calore Paul, p, 1. 8. Draper John William, p, 139. The social conflicts led to the region division: According to Rhodes in depicting that American Civil War was unavoidable conflict among the people who were slaves and the people who were free. The irreconcilable difference between the culture, morality, politics and social values among the societies set the United States on the road to the Civil War. The society is a functional entity where many conflicts happen but sometimes it can lead to a gigantic exposure and that what happened during the time of American civil war. The social conflicts were among the few main reasons for the outbreak of the civil war. The main conflict was between the society of the slaves and the society of the free men. The liberal community was split into two and they were, one: the society who preached pacifism and two: the other society was the people who saw an opportunity due to the war and also an opportunity to make the America safe for democracy. It had been seen that the members of both the school of thoughts were following the progressive tradition. During the Civil War the local communities use to elect local leaders 9 and that was one way the fragmentation of the leadership and different thoughts came into the society and for that reason it was a total chaos to recognize the ultimate goal of the society. The traditional interpretation of the most well known, James Ford Rhodes attributed the war on only one factor and that is the slavery. 10 The one only slavery caused the agitations in southern states. And, the national government had no options than suppressing them. However, there are many researchers who think slavery was not the primary issue for the civilians to go for war. The extreme decentralized social structure might have rooted the war among the society. However, the American civil war has shown one thing 9. Vinovskis Maris, p, 37. 10. Hummel Jeffrey Rogers, p, 6. clearly that people go for war for conduct the social salvation by donating their lives to the freedom. The opening of Mississippi was the political objective of the west, the captain of the Richmond that of the east thought that can be possible by ruling the operations of the waster. However, no proper impression was made upon 11. The economic conflicts led to the region division: The economic background of the United States was also one of the reasons for the people to sacrifice their lives in the notorious war. The economic imbalance within the society compelled the normal civilians to fight for the freedom. From the sixteenth century the slavery was one of the main issues for the social agitations. The poverty and the social discriminations were very much notable. There were many Africans were sold in the market for the exchange of money. Slaves were becoming poorer day by day. The torture and the starvation used to be the daily routine. The thought of freedom was inside everyone’s mind but the unity was missing. But the growing inhuman torture, the starvation and the poverty pushed the people of America to outrage for the freedom. The social discrimination and the imbalanced social structure were very much prominent as that time. The poverty and the last for freedom were so prominent at that time, that most of the people from the slave class were ready to sacrifice their lives for the freedom so there children and family can see a free world. There were many socio-economical facts were involved for the outbreak of the war. The war is not at all an act of the civilians unless they are frustrated to the ultimate point. The misbalanced economy and the unstructured social problem led to the war. 11. Draper John William, p, 139. Conclusion: From the thorough study about the American history of the Civil War it has been come to the limelight that American Civil War is among the bloodiest wars in the history of mankind. The social turbulences, the economic backdrop and the political background had agitated the civilians to sacrifice their lives in exchange of freedom from the slavery. However, the consequences of the war were a devastating chapter in the history of American Civilization. But, in the other hand as the destructions lead to the birth of new civilization and development the same way the American Civil War gave the kick off to the making of the new American or rather United States with the speeding industrial development. List of References Calore Paul. 2008. “The causes of the Civil War: the political, cultural, economic, and territorial disputes between North and South”. North Carolina: McFarland. Donohue William A. 1985. “The politics of the American Civil Liberties Union”. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. Draper John William. 1968. “History of the American Civil War: Containing the events from the inauguration of President Lincoln to the Proclamation of Emancipation of the slaves”. New York. Harper. Griess Thomas E. 2002. “The American Civil War” New York: Square One Publishers, Inc. Hummel Jeffrey Rogers. 1996. “Emancipating slaves, enslaving free men: a history of the American Civil War”. Illinois: Open Court Publishing. Vinovskis Maris. 1990. “Toward a social history of the American Civil War: exploratory essays”. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Nd. American Civil War Summery. “Americancivilwar.com ”. Available at : http://americancivilwar.com/civil_war_summary.html. (Accesed on November 3. 2010) Read More