Confederate States of America

Can someone who is a expert in the history of the American Civil War and Confederate States of America. What the cause was of the American Civil War. As well the constitution and politics of the Confederate States of America.

Originally posted by Romantic_Rebel
Can someone who is a expert in the history of the American Civil War and Confederate States of America. What the cause was of the American Civil War. As well the constitution and politics of the Confederate States of America.

Well you will get a different answer from everybody.

It was basically slavery, but people weren't really willing to go to war to fight over slaves.

To me the reason is to complex to be really stated, being wrapped up in economics, ideology and religion. Mostly I think the North and South were both radically different socio-economic and political regions and that they were simply growing apart.

Eventually the conflicts built up to the point where both sides were willing to make a violent stand in order to ensure that their way of being would be the one that continued to exist.

I also don't think listening to people tell you about why it happened will help you. There are plenty of plain facts out their about the civil war and the time leading up to that you should study your self and form your own opinion.

Pretty much every major early-modern and modern war has multiple reasons.

There is always a push for war among certain groups that will profit by it, be they cannon-ball manufacturers in the 1800s or arms lobbyists in the 21st century.

And, as stated above, there are a whole host of other reasons, running the gamut from ideological to economic. There were massive frictions in the 1800s between the Southern states as cotton producers and the Northern states as textile manufactuers (i.e., cotton users). Think about the stresses that occur between, say, those who produce oil and those who use it in other industries to turn a profit. War is never far from a possibility in such cases. Another factor...many Europeans, especially the UK, feared the rise of US economic and political power and were happy to meddle in any way they could to see a breakup of the union. further causes include states rights issues, the perceived weakness of the Lincoln administration (at least at first) and power struggles within the Lincoln cabinet.

And so on. The more you look, the more reasons you will find. Coordinating their relative importance and the way they interacted to create what was at the time the most brutal war in history (until WWI snagged the title) is a lifetime effort and a controversial one at that. Good luck.

The civil war was about states rights.

The southern states wanted to assert their sovereign rights and the north said no way.

The issue was slavery, but in the broader scope, states rights was the foundation of the civil war.

I know the slavery issue is what gets the headlines for the causes of the Civil War. However, when you actually read into history, that is a small aspect of Southern opposition, not the cause. If Lincoln had not emancipated the slaves and still won, they would not have that to flaunt.

One site I recently read gave 10 reasons in detail which I will list condensed.

1. TARIFF
Prior to the war about 75% of the money to operate the Federal Government was derived from the Southern States via an unfair sectional tariff on imported goods and 50% of the total 75% was from just 4 Southern states.

2. CENTRALIZATION VERSUS STATES RIGHTS
The Confederate States of America fought to preserve Constitutional Limited Federal Government as established by America's founding fathers who were primarily Southern Gentlemen from Virginia.

3. CHRISTIANITY VERSUS SECULAR HUMANISM
The South believed in basic Christianity as presented in the Holy Bible. The North had many Secular Humanists (atheists, transcendentalists and non-Christians). Southerners were afraid of what kind of country America might become if the North had its way.

4. CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
Southerners and Northerners were of different Genetic Lineage's. Southerners were primarily of Western English (original Britons), Scottish, and Irish lineage (Celtic) whereas Northerners tended to be of Anglo-Saxon and Danish (Viking) extraction.

5. CONTROL OF WESTERN TERRITORIES
The North wanted to control Western States and Territories such as Kansas and Nebraska. They passed laws against slavery that Southerners considered punitive.

6. NORTHERN INDUSTRIALISTS WANTED THE SOUTH'S RESOURCES
The Northern Industrialists wanted a war to use as an excuse to get the South's resources for pennies on the dollar.

7. SLANDER OF THE SOUTH BY NORTHERN NEWSPAPERS
This political cause ties in to the above listed efforts by New England Industrialists. Beginning about 1830 the Northern Newspapers began to slander the South.

8. NEW ENGLANDERS ATTEMPTED TO INSTIGATE MASSIVE SLAVE REBELLIONS IN THE SOUTH
Abolitionists were a small but vocal and militant group in New England who demanded instant abolition of slavery in the South

9. SLAVERY
Indirectly slavery was a cause of the war. Most Southerners did not own slaves and would not have fought for the protection of slavery. However they believed that the North had no Constitutional right to free slaves held by citizens of Sovereign Southern States.

10. NORTHERN AGGRESSION AGAINST SOUTHERN STATES
It was politically important that the South be provoked into firing the first shot so that Lincoln could claim the Confederacy started the war

Source

Additionally, "North and South each entertained different visions for the United States. The South fully embraced Thomas Jefferson's class-based, agrarian "utopia," and strongly resisted Alexander Hamilton's desire to move the U.S. economy toward banking, commerce, and industry." Source

From my readings of history, the secession was primarily over states rights and the Southern resources being taken advantage of by Northern business. The War was 'started' by the South to claim what was on their property.

Originally posted by Wolf321
I know the slavery issue is what gets the headlines for the causes of the Civil War. However, when you actually read into history, that is a small aspect of Southern opposition, not the cause. If Lincoln had not emancipated the slaves and still won, they would not have that to flaunt.

Just wanted to add a little something about slavery.

Even though it wasn't really the direct cause of the war. Slavery allowed the Southern lifestyle to be what it was. Slave owners were the ones who held the most power. Slavery was ending worldwide and I think they were just being typically conservative in they were being reactionary in trying to keep their way of life

Another thing not often mentioned as contributing factors was a balance of power in Congress between free states and slave states. When new states were added to the Union, its status as a free or slave state would tip the balance of political power: check the Missouri Compromise, The Compromise of 1850 and finally the Kansas-Nebraska Act (which ultimately pointed the nation towards war).

I am a history major and well everyone pretty much summed up the main causes of the American Civil War. It is my personal opinion that the overall reason was that the Southern states felt as if the Federal government was overstepping the individual state rights.

I suggest you get some books about the Civil War and read...there are literally thousands of books not only on the war but the causes.

I took a semester class on the Civil War and we spent almost half the semester on the origins and causes of the Civil War, not enough energy nor interest to explain it here.

Explaining the Civil War is like herding cats... I will say that slavery was one element of many.

Or get the fine PBS / Ken Burns Video set on the US Civil War. Very good place to start.