The War of Secession or American Civil War was the war waged by the States of the South and the North, this war took place from 1861 to 1865. Since the Colonial Era, the United States of America presented a fundamental characteristic:the radical difference between the colonies of the North and those of the South, both economically and in the way of being of each of them.
Thus, while the Northern States had a diversified economy (agriculture, livestock, industry and commerce), preference for European labor and for democratic and bourgeois forms; the Southern States, on the other hand, had an economy based on agriculture (cultivation of cotton, sugar cane and tobacco), a workforce made up of black slaves and an inclination towards aristocratic forms.
On the other hand, while the 15 States of the South, with a population of 10,000,000 inhabitants, of which around 3,500,000 were black, declared themselves slave holders , that is, defenders of slavery because it suited their interests; the 18 Northern States, with a population of 20,000,000 inhabitants, declared themselves for the abolition of slavery, were Abolitionist or Anti-slavery .
North against South
However, despite all this immense collective wealth and the similarity of ideals, the country had not managed to become a solidly unified nation. Among others, it had to face a terrible problem that threatened its very existence:slavery established in certain states of the Union and condemned by the rest of the country. And this problem divided the nation into two totally opposite zones:the North and the South.
In truth, since colonial times, there had always been a great difference between the two regions.
The north
Populated by settlers with a democratic and religious spirit — Puritans and Quakers — they were determined supporters of freedom and equality, and therefore staunch enemies of slavery.
The south
On the contrary, colonized by Anglican or Catholic aristocrats, they had their immense latifundia cultivated by black slaves brought from Africa, since the early days of the Colony.
In this way the question of slavery became a true national problem and all Americans were divided into slaveholders or abolitionists, endangering the very existence of the State, since on several occasions the States had threatened to reach Secession , that is, to its separation from the rest of the country.
War breaks out
Such deep rivalry between the two regions reached its climax in 1860. In this year Abraham Lincoln, with anti-slavery ideas, was elected president, who was led by a new national party formed, precisely, by the abolitionists themselves, called the Republican .
This election, which was considered by the slave owners as a declaration of war, given their abolitionist position, determined the separation of the State of South Carolina from the other States of the Union , an act that was also followed by other States. This is how the War of Secession broke out, which was long and bloody, but which gave the final victory to the Federals or Northerners supported by the government. After the conflict concluded, Congress declared, by means of a constitutional amendment, that the Union among all the North American States is indissoluble , and, in addition, slavery was definitively abolished in all of them.
The struggle between the North and the South:The Civil War (1861-1865)
Lincoln, a man of humble origins, had gained a reputation as a lawyer and popularity as a politician. He was adverse to slavery being permitted in some regions and prohibited in others. And he was, above all, a supporter of the Union among all the North American States.
A few days after his election, the slave state of South Carolina declared dissolved the union that the United States of America had maintained until then (1860), thus initiating secession. He withdrew his representatives from Congress and seized the arsenals, customs, buildings, and other assets of the federal government. Eleven other states followed his example and formed the Republic of the Confederate States of America (1861), which established its capital at Richmond, Virginia, and elected President Jefferson Davis. Shortly after they started the war, by bombarding Fort Summer, which defended the port of Charleston (1861).
The bloody war lasted four years; more than two thousand battles were fought, and about 1,500,000 men perished. Its cost amounted to 3,000,000,000 dollars. Lincoln's energy, the action of his generals Grant and Sherman, and the growing strength of his forces ensured the triumph of the Federals, culminating in the dissolution of the Southern Confederacy and the re-entry of the breakaway states into the Union. 1865). In those same days Lincoln, who had just been re-elected president, and who was willing to start a work of reconciliation and national reconstruction, was assassinated by an exalted slave owner, who thus tragically sealed that quarrel.
Secessionwarconsequences
The Civil War, which was the longest and bloodiest of all those in the 19th century, and in which the most modern weapons of war were used, from battleships to submarines brought the following consequences:
– The unification of the North American Nation; fact that contributed to the exaltation of the United States in the World.
– The abolition of slavery in the country, although the problem of racial segregation continued.
TheUnitedStatesaftertheCivilWar
After the Civil War, the United States entered a stage of accelerated economic development, to which the abundance of natural resources, the American inventive genius and the democratic regime of freedom and equality of opportunity contributed, which even in the South little by little he recovered. Since the time of Benjamin Franklin, contributions had been made to mechanics and applied science (steamboats, cotton gins, grain harvesters, electric telegraphs, sewing machines, automatic weapons and machines, elevators, rotary presses, and a hundred more). ). In the second half of the 19th century, the country fully entered the era of machinery and large-scale production. With the expansion of railroads, mining, factories, agriculture and ranching, and the consequent fantastic increase in wealth, the great captains of industry arose, who were naturally allied with Republican politicians (the United States has two political parties). :the Republican and the Democrat), and this alliance ruled the country for most of the rest of the 19th century, with strong anti-capitalist opposition mainly in the West and South.