Why Did The North Cause The Civil War Essay

It was 4:30 on April 12, 1861 when Confederate forces surrounded the Union base, Fort Sumter, and opened fire. Little did the Confederates know this would lead to a long and bloody war against the Union. What caused the war to occur? It certainly wasn’t only Fort Sumter, but it was many events that continually made the north and south separate more and more. One cause would be the Lincoln-Douglas debates. The South thought Lincoln wanted to take away their way of life – slavery. The Compromise of 1850 was also a major cause to the Civil War. This Compromise was based on the ideas of Henry Clay. It was meant to solve the ideas of slavery, but failed because both the Union and Confederacy became too angry. We also gained new states from the

The North fought to preserve the union. The South fought to win recognition as an independent nation. The North also had many more advantages than the South. The North’s wealth estimated to more than two time that of the South. The North also had every type of industry, including 90% of the country’s total manufacturing. 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. They used ironclads. The North used them to control the Mississippi River, while the South used the ironclads against Union blockades. On both sides prices rose, there were shortages of food and supplies, women took over men’s jobs, and not everyone on each side agreed on politics. Both presidents, Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, had to take action to control the

Women before the Civil War devoted their lives to making a clean and healthy home for their family. Women fighting for the Union organized ladies’ aid societies to supply the Union troops with anything they needed. They went door-to-door, held county fairs, and had performances to raise money for the war. They tried to find ways to help the soldiers on the front lines. They cared for the sick and injured soldiers as nurses in hospitals. “Nearly 20,000 women served directly for the Union during the Civil War.” (Source 4 – pg. 1) White women of the Confederacy of the South helped the war effort just as the Union women did. The Confederates had a lot less recourses and money compared to the Union, so they helped on their own, through auxiliaries and relief societies. The Confederate women also worked as nurses in makeshift Confederate hospitals. Wealthy Confederate women forced slaves to do the work they never had to do. However, they too were pushed by the war. They had to expand their definition of “proper” female