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.
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. The most important factor for the outbreak of the American Civil War was slavery because it caused the initial divides between the North and South. The first divisions were as the USA was undergoing Western Expansion with the issue over whether the new states, such as California and New Mexico should be brought in as Slave states or Free states. The failure to reach a decision over whether new states would be Slave states or Free states meant there was inevitably a conflict that can be seen through to the tensions in Kansas in 1857. The fact that a minor civil war occurred simply over the issue of slavery clearly depicts that slavery was an essential factor in the outbreak of the Civil War.
With the proposal of the Wilmot Proviso, the precarious balance of free-to-slave states was again being threatened with disruption. The proposal failed, but not before succeeding in creating enough of a stir to contribute to the necessitating of the Compromise of 1850. In this new compromise, which is considered a contributing factor to the delaying of the start of civil war, several new slave policies were enacted. Included in these were the controversial Fugitive Slave Act and the slave trade being abolished in the District of Columbia. While temporarily pacifying a significant number of both Northern and Southerners, the 1850 Compromise also served to widen the ideological gap between
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
gained lots of land and the slave states and the abolitionist states were trying to determine who should get which territory so that the power in the senate would not fall to one’s advantage. This is where the main source of the conflict was made because if there were more slave states in the senate many legislations would most likely get passed in their favor. And the abolitionists were afraid that slave freedoms would become a minority in Congress. But if there were more abolitionist states in the senate then many legislations would most likely get passed in their favor. The slave states believed the abolitionist states were trying to limit slavery in the U.S..
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.
Slavery in The Civil War The American civil war from 1861 to 1865 divided many people in the United States, even turning brother against brother. There were also great amounts of bloodshed and was one of the bloodiest wars in the US and left a heritage of brief and bitterness. And the basis of this war, slavery, slavery is usually very cruel and has been around since early man. Their were two sides to this war, the North and the south. The North consisted of 19 free states in which slavery was prohibited and in the South 15 slave states which could own slaves.
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.
Even though the North and South tried to reconcile their differences on the issue of slavery by implementing compromises in the 1820’s and 1850’s, both attempts failed, leading up to the Civil War. On March 14, 1794, Eli Whitney’s was granted a patent for the cotton gin. The cotton gin made the job of separating cotton from its seed much easier. The ease of separating the cotton fiber from the seed meant that more raw cotton would be needed to keep up with increased demand. Therefore, a large amount of slaves were needed in the south to work the fields as fast as the cotton gins could separate
Examples included voting rights and citizenship, and the founders passed this to the states to decide. According to Bowles, 2011, American History 1865 to present End of Isolation, though slavery was the underlying reason for the war, another central debate was the rights of states versus the powers of the federal government. While Republicans were strongly in favor of a stronger federal government, Johnson opposed this direction and wanted states to have more power, includ¬ing the southern states. Which basically meant, more blacks in the government ; Johnson disapproved. As Johnson and Congress wres¬tled with these issues, their clash came to somewhat of a head with a disagreement over the Freedman’s Bureau.