If there is a historical story that is more fictionalized and viewed on film and television, that story is the civil war from United States. A civil war that pitted the northern states against the southern states. Economic and social differences between the states of the north and those of the south and the loss of power of the slave traders together with the expansion and colonization of new territories, brought as a result a war between the states of the union (North) and the confederate states of America (South), the Civil War.
Start and Causes of the Civil War
If we want to know the current history of the United States, it is necessary to know its origin as a country and this part of a great war that was called the Civil War. But what were the causes that led to this civil war?
Before 1961, date the american civil war begins the social, political and economic situation in the United States it was not the same in all regions, so there was a clear difference between the states.
- The Northeast RegionsThey maintained an economy based on industry and commerce.
- Northwest regions, was in full colonization, occupied by free farmers
- The southern stateswith an economy based on plantations, where there were fortunes in decline due to the virtual disappearance of the slave market.
- The Southwest regionwhere the border with Mexico maintained trade in addition to the expanding plantations, the basis of its economy.
The economic differences between the south and the north were evident, the way to face a common future, some based on the slaveryin the southern states and others facing the future with a view to the industry, all linked to the appearance of new social classes in the north, they provoked or triggered the cruel and bloody Civil War.
In 1860, a real presidential campaign was being waged, on the one hand the Republican party at the head of which was Abraham Lincoln. The Republican party promoted the abolition of slavery In the entire territory of the United States, obviously ending slavery was not part of the plans of the southern states. when abraham lincoln won the presidency largely because the population of the northern, abolitionist states was larger than the population of the south.
With the arrival to the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, the state of South Carolinaon Christmas Eve 1860, declares dissolved the union which it maintained with the rest of the states, withdrew its representatives from Congress and took charge of both the customs and the buildings and assets that had belonged to the federal government, including the arsenals.
After Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas followedBefore February 1861 all the suereño states, the eleven, had proclaimed secession, forming a new government totally independent from that of the United States, going on to be called Republic of the Confederate States of America.
The capital of the new Republic would be located in Virginia (Richmond)but they needed a president who held JeffersonDavid.
The Civil War breaks out on April 12, 1861with the attack by the southern army on Sumter Fort, in Charleston, South Carolina.
Development of the Civil War
The data of the war were devastating, it lasted practically 4 years from April 12, 1861 to April 9, 1865.
Civil War data:
- Fights: More than 2,000 fights
- Low: 1,500,000 dead
- Economic cost: $3,000,000,000
War begins with the Battle of Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. The Confederates bombarded the fort for virtually the entire day. Taking advantage of the small detachment that was in the fort and after 34 hours of bombing, April 13 Fort Sumter surrenders.
The April 19, 1861, proceed to blockade the ports of the confederation, a blockade that will remain until the end of the war. A form of avoid trade of the southern states and with a very particular name, the Plan Anaconda.
This plan was launched at the beginning of the war, at first with very little results. As the Union armies grew stronger on the seas, the blockade began to become more effective, leaving the southern armies practically no ammunition for weapons and no medicine for the wounded.
The January 1, 1863, emancipation is proclaimed, a presidential order changed the status of slaves to free men. This measure affected more than 3,000,000 people of color in the southern states, where all those slaves who escaped from the Confederate States automatically became free.
Other relevant facts:
- Battle of Gettysburg July 1, 1863. General Robert E. Lee’s offensive to invade the northern states, confronting General George Meade’s army on the Potomac. First major defeat leading to General Lee’s retreat and last attempt to invade the northern states.
- Siege of Petersburg, June 9, 1864 – March 25, 1865. It was a series of battles that took place in Virginia. With an attempt by the Federal Army to storm the city of Petersburg, an important supply center for the Confederate Army, this first siege failed. Although it would go down in history for the “United States Colored Troops”, made up of 187,000 African-American or Asian soldiers.
- Sherman’s March– November 15 to December 21, 1864, also known as the Savannah Campaign, when 60,000 soldiers of the Union army, left for the port of Savannah taking it on December 21, destroying in their path all military objectives such as infrastructure and industries.
- The assassination of abraham lincoln while enjoying a theatrical performance, he didn’t end abolitionist ideas, he just changed his name.
Little by little the Union army was taking over more territory, the plantations were soon practically deserted, the slaves tried to flee to freedom, the cut off of supplies and the lack of infrastructure took their toll on the Confederate army.
End of the Civil War
To end the war they still had to capitulate the different southern regiments, being the most important:
- April 9, 1865 – Capitulation of General Robert E. Lee
- April 26, 1865 – Capitulation of General Joseph E. Johnston
- May 4, 1865 – Capitulation of the Alabama, Mississippi, and Eastern Louisiana regiments
On August 20, 1866, President Andrew Johnson signed the document ending the war, declaring that:
“Peace, order, tranquility, and civil authority” now existed throughout the United States.
Consequences of the Civil War
considerate the longest, hardest and bloodiest war Of all the wars that took place in the 19th century, it was the war in which modern weapons of war began to be used.
- I know used the first submarines and battleshipsthus beginning a new industry, the arms industry.
- The main and most important of all consequences was the abolition of slavery in the United States, although racial segregation would still take many more years to arrive.
- The Union of all Statescaused the appearance of a strong North American nation, a union that today has made it the first world power.
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