Accessibility options


Civil War, American

Civil War, American  
Part of the National cirriculum

American Civil War 1861–65 - Click to enlarge
civil war, American - Click to enlarge
Civil War, American - Click to enlarge
Farragut, David - Click to enlarge
Lee, Robert E - Click to enlarge
Unionist soldier, American Civil War - Click to enlarge
Click images to enlarge

War (1861–65) between the Southern or Confederate States of America (see Confederacy) and the Northern or Union states. The former wished to maintain certain ‘states' rights’, in particular the right to determine state law on the institution of slavery, and claimed the right to secede from the Union; the latter fought primarily to maintain the Union, with slave emancipation (proclaimed in 1863) a secondary issue.

The issue of slavery had brought to a head long-standing social and economic differences between the two oldest sections of the country. A series of political crises was caused by the task of determining whether newly admitted states, such as California, should permit or prohibit slavery in their state constitutions; the resulting Compromise of 1850 made various concessions to the slave states. The political parties in the late 1850s came to represent only sectional interests – Democrats in the South, Republicans in the North. In the presidential campaign of 1860, the Democrats divided among themselves, while the Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln on an antislavery platform that denied the right of Congress to give legality to slavery in any territory. Lincoln swept the North, but the threats of secession made by southern orators for 40 years were soon realized. The breakdown of an underlying national political consensus (which had previously sustained national parties) led to the outbreak of hostilities, only a few weeks after Lincoln's inauguration.

The war, and in particular its aftermath, when the South was occupied by northern troops in the period known as Reconstruction, left behind much bitterness. Industry prospered in the North, while the economy of the South, which had been based on slavery, stagnated for some time.

© RM 2009. Helicon Publishing is division of RM.


 
 

Encyclopaedia Search

Click a letter for the index
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Or search the encyclopaedia:
 
 
All results tagged with the symbol denotes content that is relevant to the national curriculum

Advertisement starts



Advertisement ends


Advertisement starts



Advertisement ends

Country Search

 
 

Dictionary search

 
 

Malta Flag

Malta Flag
The George Cross was awarded by King George VI and originally appeared in a small blue canton. The present design dates from 1964 when the islands gained independence. Effective date: 21 September 1964.

Health Search

 
 
Search all Diseases Medicines

Advertisement starts



Advertisement ends

Skip to page content | Text onlyGraphical version of this page

Tiscali Quicklinks. Please visit our Accessibility Page for a list of the Access Keys you can use to find your way around the site, skip directly to the main navigation, to the page content, or to more links within reference.

web |  shopping |  this site |  video |  local services

Page Footer


Access keys


You will need to use different key combinations in order to use access keys depending on your internet browser, find out which on our accessibility page.
  • (0) Navigate to Accessibility page.
  • (1) Navigate to Home page.
  • (2) Navigate to My email.
  • (3) Navigate to My Account.
  • (4) Navigate to Site Map page.
  • (5) Navigate to Contact us page.
  • (6) Navigate to Members channel.
  • (7) Navigate to Services channel.
  • (8) Navigate to News & Info channel.
  • (9) Navigate to Entertainment channel.
  • ([) Skip down to the Primary navigation block.
  • (]) Skip down to the more links within this section block.
  • (=) Bypass all navigation and jump to the content.
  • (x) Text only version of this page.
Background images used:
furniture images used in the site icons used in the site images used in the header