I. Introduction a. Attention Step – The American Civil War became the bloodiest conflict the Nation had ever seen due to the advances in the Western way of war. b. Thesis – Financing is the most predominant characteristic of the Western way of war which best exemplified the American Civil War. War financing for both the Union and Confederate States was pivotal in providing new technology and changing the direction of the war. II.
Losing such a valuable thing hurt the South. Because of the destruction of cities, railroads, riverboats, cotton gins, and livestock, many businesses went bankrupt. The overall cost of war was terrible for the South and the North. Before the civil war the national debt was sixty-five million dollars.
The advantage for the Union was that they had more men and more resources. The Confederate Army also had resources but not as many. The Union army had 87,000 men fighting in this battle and in the Confederate Army there was 45,000 men fighting. Giving a huge advantage to the North. The weapons used were guns, swords, and canons.
After the Civil War, the United States had two distinct economies, which is quite significant. The Southern economy was completely damaged by the results of the Civil War. Southerners were forced to readjust their entire economy, because slaves needed to be liberated, leaving slave-owners with no workforce. Meanwhile, in the North, the need to supply Union armies with particularly daily supplies marked the start of an era of industrial development. Which giant corporations essentially emerged known as Big Business.
The North had a major industrial advantage as well. At the beginning of the war the south had 1/9 the industrial capacity of the Union. The Union also manufactured 97% of the countries firearms, 96% of its railroad locomotives, 94% of its cloth, 93% of its pig iron, and over 90% of its boot and shoes (Strengths and Weaknesses: North vs. South). The north had twice the density of railroads per square mile, aslo.
The final reason the Union won the war over the confederacy is they had much more advanced techology and better thansportation. Since railroads became such an important new technology in the war the Union having a massive railroad to transport troops, medical supplies, and food made it a huge advantage compared to the small railroad the confederacy had. The North also had the telegraph, which was another technological advantage over the South. Some ways the Union used this was that military leaders were able to communicate in real time using the telegraph. They had updated information on enemy troop strengths and
At the beginning of the Civil War, the Union’s advantages of a greater population and better industrial economy was perceived as though they were on a level far above that of the Confederacy. Though the Union did have the upper hand in those elements, the Confederacy had better trained officers who harnessed superior decision-making skills and battle tactics. While the North held distinct advantages economically, their one glaring deficiency was in its military. When the war began, the Union held 23 states totaling a population of 22 million, while the Confederacy held only 9 states with a population of 9 million, and approximately 4 million of them were slaves. The Union armies outnumbered Confederate armies by a ratio of 2-to-1, roughly.
Finally the North possessed a more effective railroad, while the South did not. This was a huge advantage because railroads were the main way of transportation of this time. Southerners would be fighting on their own land, and had some of the best officers in the nation. Northerners had a much larger population than the South which gave the Union a larger soldier population, more farmland for food, and they had factories for making supplies for their soldiers. Both the North and the South had technology during the war.
The rising numbers of death in the South tremendously weakened their army, which allowed for a Northern succession. William C. Davis asserts, “Industrially the South couldn’t keep up in output and in manpower. By the end of the war, the South had, more or less, plenty of weaponry still, but it just didn’t have enough men to use the guns”. Having such a small army, the South was not able to sustain a decent amount of soldiers for the war. Henceforth, the Northern advantage of having more soldiers had a large impact on the Southern loss in the Civil
With advancements in technology and social standards evolving quickly, the American economy also became positively impacted by such advancements and changes. Although social stigmas of the time included parsimonious business owners and industry leaders, these empirical industries grew exponentially in the years following the Civil War and, therefore, lended wealth to employees and owners. Large and small business felt the impact of this economic growth: “Farms, canneries, factories, slaughterhouses, mines, mills, refineries, and other businesses turned out more products more cheaply, enabling more people to buy more of them” (Tindal 552). As a result of such favorable production rates, large companies easily overtook the market as a whole and
What were the major causes of the civil war and reconstruction? The North and South states had many conflicts that made them butt heads. The conflicts lead to some long term and short term causes and effects. With all that happened there were some successes and some failures. The impact the civil war and reconstruction left were not too good.
The economic impact of the war as is true in most if not all cases of war are that the spoils of war are the reward of the victors. The South was already in a weaker position in the industrial strength of its geographical coalition that it was amazing that they were as close to actually succeeding in their mission. They lacked the ability to replenish their troops with guns and ammunition and in many cases had to gather this gear from failed Confederate and Union soldiers. While in the north with a large population and a more sustained economy they were to accomplish the
After four long years, the Unions won the war which saw to it that both parties ended up as a united nation once again. The North overpowered and defeated the South due to a number of reasons as illustrate below. To begin with, the fact that the South majored in agriculture made them to be left behind in terms of industrialization, an important factor during the civil war since fabricated merchandise was highly regarded than agricultural products. The North was therefore privileged to be in a better position in production of armory since it was able to host firms that manufactured ammunitions and war locomotives. The South was poorer, since cotton was no longer making ready income and they only had a few manufacturing origins.
The Union had more railroad lines and they had the telegraph system. The telegraph system was a huge advantage for the Union because they could now send messages thousands of miles away in less than a minute. President Abraham Lincoln could now command the Union’s generals in the safety of his own office. The railroad lines gave the Union a big advantage because they could transport resources faster than the Confederate
In the novel The March E. L. Doctorow expresses the theme of the negative effects of war more specifically in the south towards the end of the civil war. The way he connected the point of view to the theme was from different people of the south and there dreadful daily lives during and at the end of the war. The author strived for historical content with a mix of fiction to entertain the audience- but in this book he showed how war impacted their lives. In a way, he wanted to prove a point that war is a devastating extravaganza.
