Economic Causes To The Civil War Essay -- American History Civil War

Although the American Civil War mainly occurred because of slavery, the fact is that slavery had a lot to do with economic and social issues. By the year of 1860, the North and the South was developed into extremely different sections. There was opposing social, economic, and political points of view, starting back into colonial periods, and it slowly drove the two regions farther in separate directions. The two sections tried to force its point of view on the nation as a whole. Even though negotiations had kept the Union together for many years, in 1860 the condition was unstable. The presidential election of Abraham Lincoln was observed by the South as a risk to slavery and many believe it initiated the war. In the beginning of the 1800s, economic diversities between the two different regions had also grown. By the year 1860, cotton was the chief crop for the South; it also represented fifty-seven percent of all American exports. The prosperity of cotton fulfilled the South's reliance on the plantation system and its crucial elementÂâ€"slavery. The North had confidently been recognized as a manufacturing society. Labor was needed, although not necessarily slave labor. Immigration was an encouragement. Immigrants that were from European regions worked in factories, built the railroads in the North, and developed the West. Very little stayed put in the South. The South opposed industrialization, so therefore they manufactured very little. Much of the manufactured supplies had to be traded in. Southerners therefore opposed high tariffs. The manufacturing financial system of the North, insisted high tariffs to defend its goods from inexpensive overseas competition. Prior to the Civil War, the North's government key ... ...ere alarmed that the adding up of only one slave state would change the stability of control to the South. Numerous people in both the North and the South were concerned that annexation would direct to war with Mexico. Their fear demonstrated right in August 1843, when Mexican ruler Santa Anna cautioned that annexation would be "equivalent to a declaration of war against the Mexican Republic" Despite this forewarning John Tyler signed a treaty of annexation with Texas. Two months later on, the Whig-controlled Senate overcame the treaty. James K. Polk won the presidency and the win implied that the mass majority of Americans sought to obtain more terrain. Legislator's outlook on the Texas question began to alter. In February, Congress accepted annexation. In December, after Texas voters added their support, Texas grew to be the twenty-eighth state in the Union.