Mr. Raasch's Social Studies
Unit 4: The Civil War and Reconstruction
Causes of the Civil War
The economic benefits and expansion of the cotton trade led to the extension of the US and added gasoline to the fires of conflict between the industrial North and agricultural South. The Manifest Destiny period added several new lands and future states to the United States and debates rose over the question of whether the new states should be free or slave states.
Abolition groups have been operating in the US since the Revolutionary war and during the 1850s gained real politicial power in the North. Sectionalism further divided the nation because of the greater gap between the North and South as the industry of the North no longer depended on the labor of slaves, while the agricultural South believed that to be economically successful it needed slaves for the mass production of cotton. This division and conflict will create the road to the most devasting war the United States has ever had.
The American Civil War
The American Civil War began with the attack on Fort Sumter before Abraham Lincoln took over as the new president of the Union States. The nation was torn in two; with the Union in the North and the Confederate nation making up the former Southern region of the United States. More Americans died in this war than in all of the previous war combined and is still the deadliest, most devastating war on US soil.
The Reconstruction
The majority of the fighting of the Civil War was fought in the South, leaving a destroyed and hopeless people in its wake. The Reconstruction was an attempt to rebuild the region and stabilize the government of the South in the aftermath of the war. The conflict over how to handle the situation of the conquered rebels created a tremendous of tension between politicians in the North. This tension also led to the rise of the terrorists of the KKK, who would target freed blacks and northern Carpet Baggers, who were trying to take advantage of the vulnerable Southerners. The impact of the Reconstruction will be felt for almost 100 years, with the creation of segregation in the South and the division of the races in that region.
