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What Was The Main Cause Of The Civil War Essay

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“War is Hell.” William Tecumseh Sherman said this as he was preparing for the Georgia Campaign in the American Civil War. Sherman attacked and captured the entire city of Atlanta. After he captured Atlanta, he commenced his famous “March to Sea” leaving a sixty mile wide and three hundred mile long wake of destruction in his path. The economy, the division over adding new states, and slavery were the three main causes for all the destruction and fighting that was part of the American Civil War. The first cause of the Civil War is the economy. The North had an industrial powerhouse economy while the only thing the South did was grow cotton using slaves. According to Railroads in 1860, the North had more railroad mileage than the South (Railroads in 1860). The North used the railroads to transport raw materials to factories and manufactured goods to markets. The graphs in Resources of …show more content…

While the North was building an industrial powerhouse with hundreds of different factories, the only thing the South had was slavery and cotton. In 1857 Hinton Helper wrote that the South is dependent on the North for everything manufactured (The Impending Crisis of the South, 1857). By relying on the North to produce everything it needs, in reality, slavery is hurting the South and dividing the nation. Hinton Helper also wrote that the South needs the North’s money (The Impending Crisis of the South, 1857). Without the money that the North’s industry makes and provides to the South, the South would not be able to survive; however, the North did not need the South to provide anything to them, so the North could let the South go at any time they wanted. If the South had been made its own country, it would have crumbled. Although the economy of the North and South is one cause of the Civil War, another cause is the great divide over adding new states to the

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The first main cause of the Civil War was economic differences between the Northern and Southern states. During the first few decades of the 19th century, the North had an industrial revolution that brought an economy that relied on laborers. While at the same time, the South continued to rely on slaves for their farming and the production of cotton. The Northerners did not need slaves for their economy, but the Southerners could not make any profit without cotton or slaves. In the 1860’s, the North had twice as many railroads as the South, and the South had a bigger cotton production because of their slave population (Document A).

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