Causes of the American Civil War

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The American Civil War:
Causes, Victor, and Validity

Keagan Koerber

History 205
Professor Childress
December 9, 2014
The slightest mention of the American Civil War is enough to bring graphic and often horrifying images into one’s head: mountains of dead soldiers, amputations without anesthesia, and diseases running rampant. The Civil War was a war that no one wished for, it resulted in the deaths of several hundred thousand American lives, but it is often justified by its end result, which was the abolition of slavery. But could the Civil War have been avoided? The tensions between the North and South started with their divergent socioeconomic standings. The North was more industrial, with its economy relying on
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So Douglas introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act to Congress, which created both the Kansas and Nebraska territories. The bill came under harsh criticism from Southerners who feared that both the territories would become free states, so in order to appease them Douglas proposed that Congress repeal the Wilmot Proviso, which was the part of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 that set the border of slavery at thirty-six degrees, thirty minutes north. But by adding that he angered Northerners who wanted to contain slavery in the South. This split the nation, with Congressmen voting based on their regional ties rather than with their affiliated party. Douglas managed to pass the Act despite this fierce sectionalism.
By 1855 the Whig party broke apart, the Northern Whigs formed the Republican party, which was a conglomeration of parties whose main goal was to abolition slavery. The Southern Whigs joined the Democrats, who were Southerners and wanted to keep slavery. Northern Democrats who voted for the Kansas-Nebraska Act saw a loss of political power while the Democrats in the South experienced a gain in political power from the Act. While the Whig party was not a main political power anymore its policies influenced the emergent Republican

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