Territorial Issues Before the onset of the Great American Civil War, a huge debate was raging among the citizens, and politicians of the Untied States. Slavery was the main issue that separated the Northern and Southern states, but another, more complicated issue was at hand. As settlers began to talk about the “Manifest Destiny,” and expand westward, new territories were being given statehood. The formation of these new states rose to a new question: should these new states welcome slavery within their boundaries? Three distinct positions were taken on this issue.
As slave-owning and slave trading were accepted routines of colonial life, slavery would play a central part in the language of the revolution. The perseverance of the legalized institution of slavery until 1865 is unquestionably the most controversial aspect of all American history. The hypocrisy of the new republic dominated the spotlight of the global stage. The US cultivated and advocated philosophy of the Enlightenment while continuing to legitimize the evil of slavery amongst countless innocent souls. As the European lands were building powerful states on the foundations of revolutionary ideas, and dismantling the whole system, the United States forged a strong central government to deal with the political and social issues that divided the American republic.
The territorial expansion of the United States played a great role in the Civil war because it indirectly affected slavery. The United States expanding meant that the North and South would have to agree on whether the new territories would be admitted as free or slave territories. Before new states were added, there was balance among the country. Once new territories were added, the
Assess the factors that led to the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861 The main factor that caused the American Civil War in 1861 was slavery as it was the underlying fundamental division between Northern and Southern societies that made living in harmony impossible. However, we must also examine the economic disparity between the North and South, political failure to manage the situation and the impact of the election of Lincoln in 1860. Although slavery is the underlying reason, the civil war would not have happened if it were not for the financial divide that developed because of slavery. These core factors were exacerbated by political mismanagement, a catalyst for the outbreak of the Civil War and Lincoln’s election in 1860, the trigger factor. Despite this, had it not been for slavery, there would have been no initial divide between North and South which created economic disparity and led to Southern paranoia over Northern expansionism which led to war, thus the most important factor.
There was a dispute between free-states and slave states over the new territory, California, though the issue was temporally fixed with the Compromise of 1850. Another dispute was over the rights of the states; this argument resulted in the idea of nullification, allowing states to have the right to rule federal acts unconstitutional. The last spark was ignited when President Lincoln, who supported the abolitionist movement, was elected in 1860, thus, creating South Carolina to issue its Declaration of Independence, generating the Confederacy, and later led to the American Civil War. The single most important reason war was averted for so long was the many compromises made in the years before that attempted to keep the south and north content in the house and senate. With the United States expanding its territory to the west, balancing the free and slaves states, as well as the growing conflict over slavery generated more problems.
The American Civil War was the bloodiest war fought on American soil. The Civil War was fought over whether or not slavery should be legal and continue in the U.S. Before the war was fought many compromises were made to prevent the war. One was the Compromise of 1850. The Compromise of 1850 was the most efficient way to settle the conflict of the amount of slave states and abolitionist states in the senate after the Mexican American War. The abolitionist states outnumbered the slave states in the senate.
Eventually leading to the outbreak of the Civil war in 1861. This all began with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1847, providing new land in the south-western territories. However, the main problem was what to do with this new found land. Free Sollers and Northern Whigs heavily opposed the spread of slavery, but the southerners wanted more land for agriculture and increase their political power. Henry Clay’s proposition was accepted in 1850, however, this did not fix all issues.
The American Civil War, spanning the years of 1861-1865, was fought primarily over two key issues; slavery and states’ rights. Though examples of conflict concerning both of these issues can be seen as early as before the framing of the Constitution, there were several key events in the mid-1800’s that contributed to the exacerbation of the negative Northern and Southern sentiments. These events would culminate with succession of the Southern Confederate States and lead the nation into the bloodiest battle in her history to date, the Civil War. The Northwest Ordinance of 1789 was the first major legislation to address the issue of slavery in future regions. This ordinance set the precedent of the United States expanding by creation of new states instead of expansion of existing ones.
This act was passed by the US Congress in 1850 as part of the compromise of 1850. This act was on of the most controversial factors of the 1850 compromise and heightened the North’s fear of a slave power conspiracy. It required that all escaped slaves, upon capture to be returned to their masters and that citizens and officials form free states had to cooperate in this act. Bounties were often put on escaped slaves heads to help capture them. Oftentimes, free slaves were captured in free states because of this act and resold or returned to original masters.
This ignited a century of technological advancements in the military that has enabled the United States to excel in militaristic domination. The first war to use significant technological advancement was World War I. Despite the introduction of trench warfare (in which troops dug bases many feet deep into the ground and fought only on the surface), the art of battle would forever be changed. There were many different types of weaponry advancements experienced in World War I. Machine guns were built twice more powerful than in the Civil War, firing up to 600 bullets a minute which was the equivalent of 250 riflemen.