History 1 final paper

Akther 1

Akther 2

Sabiha Akther

Professor Amy Bell

HIST 1302.82004

23 April 2021

The Civil War

The American Civil War that was considered as a huge spark in the history of America was carried out by the Unionists (North) and the Confederates (South) between 1861 and 1865. Both the North and the South contributed greatly to the civil war in terms of their social differences and the economic differences that existed. Also, slavery and federal rights contributed also to the civil war. But the main cause of the civil war was the economic differences and social differences in the North and the South. When the cotton gin was invented in the 1790s, it made work easy and also the cotton became profitable, hence boosting the income of the cotton farmers. Though the machine had its advantages and disadvantages, it made work easy on the plantations but also it caused the need for cheap labor. As a result of the cotton becoming profitable, it led the south to be a one crop economy because all depended on the cotton and this had negative impact during the civil war. But as for the northern part, it depended on industrialization and this led to the economic growth in the northern part.

The lifestyle of those who were living in the north changed because of the economic growth yet in the south, there was no change because they held on to their traditions. The other reason for the civil war was the fight between the state rights and federal rights where this fight needed to be addressed because it was already a problem even before the revolution because one party would be advocating for the state rights whereas the other party advocated for the federal rights. Documents such as the Articles of Confederation and the US Constitution were weak federal documents that did not do a good job of States rights. They felt that the states had the right to decide whether or not to pick a federal act or not. Nullification was the result of these debates, where the states had the right to decide whether a federal act was unconstitutional.