Events of the Civil War 1861 1865. Why did the Civil War start in America? The balance of power and goals of the parties

Image copyright AP Image caption General Sherman (leaning on gun carriage) and his officers in the vicinity of Atlanta (1864 photo from Library of Congress)

150 years ago, on November 15, 1864, the key event of the American Civil War took place: the famous "march to the sea" of the northerners under the command of William Sherman began.

The starting point of the campaign was the capital of the state of Georgia - Atlanta.

The day before, the commander of the defense of the southerners, General Hood, ordered to undermine 81 wagons of ammunition, which could not be taken with them, since the northerners cut the railway. The result was a massive fire.

This story is known to the world from the frames from the movie "Gone with the Wind", where Rhett Butler, whipping a horse, takes Scarlett out of the city through flames and explosions.

From November 15 to December 21, the 60,000-strong army of northerners marched in four columns 360 kilometers from Atlanta to Savannah, destroying everything that could be destroyed and set on fire on its way.

By that time the war had been going on for 3 years and 7 months with varying success. The purpose of such a radical measure was to economically ruin the South and deprive the enemy of the will to resist.

"March to the Sea" serves as an illustration of how much mores have changed since then. Today, no army would resort to such tactics, especially on their own soil.

The then concepts of humanity and human rights were far from modern. Sherman forced captured southerners to dig with shovels anti-personnel mines, stating that otherwise his soldiers would die, and he was not obliged to spare the enemies.

Idea or pragmatism?

The main outcome of the Civil War was the abolition of slavery. However, the opinion that the northerners fought for a high idea does not fully reflect reality, especially at the first stage.

Indeed, there was an influential abolitionist movement that demanded the abolition of slavery on moral grounds. It united intellectuals (just remember "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe), religious moralists and just decent people from all walks of life.

Some abolitionists risked their lives to help slaves escape to the free states. The southerners regarded this as theft and demanded the extradition of the fugitives and the punishment of accomplices, which served as a constant cause for friction.

However, many opponents of slavery did not at all consider blacks their equals and did not seek to see them in the North. It has even been suggested that the fault of the southerners is precisely that they brought slaves into America and created a problem.

Even more were those who, in the spirit of American individualism, believed that the southerners had the right to live as they wanted, and there was no need to interfere in their affairs. This point of view was shared by most of the political and business elite of the North.

However, over time, controversy began to accumulate on other issues.

After the Revolutionary War, the wealthy and educated southern planters for several decades actually played the same role as the nobles in Europe. Mostly they recruited presidents, senior officials, generals and diplomats.

As economic development North there began to grow dissatisfied with the fact that the region, which produces most of the GDP, is politically disadvantaged.

Increased psychological incompatibility. Work was in full swing in the North, and the way of life of the southern planters was reminiscent of the life of Russian landowners under serfdom.

In the eyes of the characters in Gone with the Wind, the Yankees were nasty, soulless, fussy types who thought only about money. They saw in the southerners pampered lazybones, drowning in undeserved luxury.

In the 1850s, an irresolvable conflict arose over import tariffs. The South, which lived by exporting cotton and tobacco to Europe and importing industrial products, demanded free trade, while the North, which was experiencing an industrial revolution, demanded protectionism.

Another problem was the development of the Wild West, more precisely, the questions of whether slavery should be allowed in the new states, and whether land should be sold there or given away for free.

Under the first option, the lion's share of the land would have ended up in the hands of planters who had money and cheap labor. The northerners wanted everyone to be able to get a piece of land in the new territories and become a farmer.

In addition, the southerners were afraid that the free states would eventually gain a strong majority in Congress and be able to freely pass the laws they liked.

In 1854, after a long struggle, Congress approved the "Kansas-Nebraska Act", which allowed the new states to independently decide on the issue of slavery, which temporarily calmed the southerners. However, the election in 1860 of the notorious opponent of slavery Abraham Lincoln to the presidency reawakened their fears.

secession

The US Constitution did not explicitly allow or prohibit the secession of states from the federation.

South Carolina was the first to pass the Secession Act on December 20, 1860. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana followed through January.

On February 4, the six states convened a Provisional Congress and proclaimed a new independent nation: the Confederate States of America.

Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina joined in the next three and a half months. These 11 states adopted their own constitution making slavery perpetual and elected former Mississippi Senator Jefferson Davis as president. Richmond, Virginia, became the capital of the Confederation.

The state of the northerners during the war was called the "Union". It included 23 states, including the slaveholding Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, and Maryland, which remained loyal to Washington after an internal struggle.

The Indians, who themselves owned slaves, and most importantly, did not want the mass resettlement of northern colonists to their lands, took the side of the Confederation.

Trigger

On March 4, 1861, Lincoln took the presidential oath. In his inaugural speech, he declared the creation of the Confederacy illegal, but promised not to use force against the southern states and not to abolish slavery in those territories where it existed.

The reason for the war was the capture by the southerners on April 14 of Fort Sumter in South Carolina, which was federal property.

When the shelling began, the commander of the garrison, Major Robert Anderson, surrendered without a fight, but demanded that the southerners salute him with a hundred rifle volleys before lowering the US flag. A bullet accidentally hit an ammunition box, killing two of Anderson's subordinates, Privates Daniel Howe and Edward Galloway. They became the first victims of the Civil War.

On the evening of the same day, Lincoln signed a declaration on the outbreak of hostilities and the recruitment of 75,000 volunteers.

The course of the war

The North accounted for 22 million people (9.1 million in the South, including 3.6 million slaves), 60% of the territory, almost all industry, most of the merchant and navy, 70% of railways, 81% of bank deposits .

My highest goal in this struggle is the preservation of the union, not the preservation or abolition of slavery. If I could save the union without freeing a single slave, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing some slaves and not others liberated, I would do it. But I do not intend to change my often expressed personal desire that all men everywhere should be free Abraham Lincoln, New York Times interview August 22, 1862

However, the war began unfavorably for him.

In the first major battle at Bull Run in western Virginia on July 21, 1861, the northerners were routed and fled.

Panic broke out in the capital. On July 25, Congress adopted the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution, which declared the sole purpose of the war to preserve the country's territorial integrity and demanded that the Administration take no action against the institution of slavery.

For gentlemen from the South, officer service was a hereditary occupation, and in the army of the northerners, command posts up to colonel were completed by inexperienced volunteers.

The commander-in-chief, General MacLellan, has become the talk of the town for his indecisiveness. Grant, Sherman, and other capable military commanders advanced only during the fighting, but the personnel reshuffling continued throughout the war.

Southerners were more motivated and united. In the North, there were restrictions on civil rights, which, by the way, is still blamed on Abraham Lincoln, but people who considered the war unnecessary could express their opinion. In the South, as the Russian military historian Alexander Svechin pointed out, they would simply have been shot for this. For the northerners, under certain circumstances, a compromise was possible, but not for their opponents.

Ultimately, the North won the war thanks to economic, numerical and naval superiority. The ports of the South were blocked, trade died, the population and the army began to suffer from a shortage of the most necessary.

Captain Butler in Gone with the Wind is known to have made his fortune by risking his life to deliver fabulously expensive goods to the South.

Revolutionary steps

But leading role played the will and determination of Lincoln. On December 30, 1862, he bypassed Congress and signed the "Proclamation to Abolish Slavery", which took effect within 48 hours.

Previously, the opinion prevailed in Europe that the war was going on because of the ambitions of the northerners, who talk about freedom, but themselves do not allow the South to dispose of own destiny. Now they have become fighters for a noble cause.

British textile mills suffered from shortages of cotton, and mass layoffs began. London and Paris were preparing to recognize the Confederation and send a fleet to lift the blockade, but under pressure public opinion were forced to reconsider their plans.

About 180 thousand slaves, having learned about the proclamation, fled from their masters and joined the army of the North, served as guides and scouts.

Even earlier, in May 1862, at the initiative of Lincoln, Congress passed the Homestead Act, which prohibited slavery on new lands and guaranteed a free allotment of 160 acres to everyone who wanted it.

For the poor of Europe, America has become a beacon of hope and a promised land. Within two years, 177,000 Germans and 144,000 Irish crossed the ocean and immediately signed up for Lincoln's army.

On July 1-3, 1863, the southerners who invaded Pennsylvania suffered their first heavy defeat at Gettysburg. Simultaneously, General Grant captured the key fortress of Vicksburg in the Mississippi, capturing some 25,000 Confederates and cutting Confederate territory in two. On November 7, the Confederates were defeated at Rappanahoke Station.

According to military historians, after these defeats, the South lost its chances of victory, since its human and economic reserves were exhausted. From now on, the only question was how long it would last.

On the eastern front the southerners resisted stubbornly throughout 1864, but in the west, the fall of Atlanta and the "march to the sea" made further struggle useless.

By the spring of 1865, only 54 thousand people remained at the disposal of the commander-in-chief of the Confederation, General Lee. On April 2, Richmond fell; on April 9, Lee surrendered to Commander-in-Chief of the North and future President Ulysses Grant at Appomatox.

Jefferson Davis and members of his administration were arrested the next day.

On June 23, General Stand Waity and his unit, which consisted of Indians, capitulated. The war ended.

Russia's position

London and Paris supported the South during the Civil War: Britain for economic reasons, Napoleon III because he hoped to bring the Confederacy under his influence. A number of southern states used to be part of French Louisiana, sold in 1803 by his uncle.

Official St. Petersburg, in defiance of recent opponents in the Crimean War, took the side of the North.

Progressive people, rejoicing at the recent abolition of serfdom, warmly welcomed the fight against slavery across the ocean.

In Russian diplomatic documents and the press, the Confederation was referred to as the "rebellious states."

From September 1863 to July 1864, the Russian squadrons of Admirals Lesovsky and Popov were in New York and San Francisco.

Popov gave orders to his crews to intervene if the southerners tried to attack San Francisco from the sea.

About 500 American congressmen and officials visited the ships of the New York squadron.

"Russia and the United States are brotherhood"; "The Russian cross is intertwined with stars and stripes"; "An enthusiastic popular demonstration on Fifth Avenue," wrote American newspapers.

"The municipality and the upper bourgeoisie showered honors on Russian officers. On the other hand, French and English sailors are not at all visible on the shore, although up to five thousand of them are located in the cramped space of the local maritime parking. Officers do not want to play a secondary role at festivities where Russians are lions, and sailors they are not allowed in because the Americans are luring them into their service," the London Times reported.

"President Lincoln sincerely would like the reception to reflect the sincerity and friendliness that our country has for Russia," Secretary of State William Seward said.

Forgetting for a while about their republican and liberal convictions, White House expressed solidarity with St. Petersburg on the issue of suppressing the Polish uprising.

Mark on history

Since then, there has been no military action on American soil, except for clashes with Indians and the death in early 1945 of six picnic participants (the pregnant wife of a pastor and five teenagers) in Oregon from a bomb delivered by a Japanese balloon.

Almost four million people took part in the Civil War (2,803,300 from the North and 1,064,200 from the South).

359 thousand northerners and 258 thousand southerners died in battles, died from wounds and diseases, and in total over 617 thousand people - more than the United States lost in all other wars in which it participated.

Military expenses and material losses were estimated at 3.5 billion then, or about 210 billion today.

Military experts consider the American Civil War to be the last war of the old type in the world, when hand-to-hand and saber felling were the main types of hostilities. However, it also brought some innovations.

On March 9, 1862, the first battle of armored ships in history took place on the Hampton raid off the coast of Virginia.

On February 17, 1864, the southerners' submarine Hanley, propelled by the muscular strength of eight sailors who rotated the crankshaft, also torpedoed an enemy ship (the corvette Husatonic) for the first time in history.

In the battle of Seven Pines on May 31 - June 1, 1862, both sides used machine guns, although they were primitive and did not have a significant impact on the course of the battle.

In August-September 1863 near Chattanooga, northerners used barbed wire for military purposes.

For the first time, however, not in world, but in American history, both sides resorted to forced mobilization (southerners since April, and northerners since July 1862).

In November 1864, Abraham Lincoln was elected to another term on a wave of military victories. On April 14, 1865, he was shot in the theater by actor John Booth, who was avenging the defeat of the South and, pulling the trigger, exclaimed in Latin: "Such is the fate of tyrants!"

The Civil War of 1861-1865 was the bloodiest military conflict in the history of the United States of America. The losses of both sides in killed exceeded 625 thousand people, over 400 thousand were wounded. The consequence of the Civil War was a radical change in the face of the state.

As befits an event of this magnitude, the American Civil War is surrounded by many myths, both in America and abroad.

1. The reason for the war was the issue of the emancipation of black slaves

The most common and enduring myth depicts northerners as supporters of progress, and southerners as ruthless exploiters.

This is completely untrue. Few people know that four slave states remained on the side of the North - Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri and Maryland.

The real causes of the conflict lay in the economic sphere. For example, the parties had radically different approaches to the issue of taxes on imported goods - the industrialized North advocated the introduction of high taxes, while the South sought freedom of trade with the rest of the world. In fact, the northerners pushed through laws that were beneficial to them, and shifted the cost of industrialization onto the shoulders of the southerners, who were threatened with ruin by such a policy.

New US President Abraham Lincoln, elected in 1860, declared that all new states in the country would be free from slavery. Such a prospect promised a steady predominance of northerners in Congress and in power structures, which would allow them to pass any laws convenient for them without taking into account the opinion of the South.

This is what prompted the southerners to take active steps to protect their own interests.

2. Southern states seceded from the United States, committed a rebellion

President Abraham Lincoln called his opponents rebels, but at the same time he deliberately distorted reality.

The US Constitution did not prohibit the secession of individual states, although there was no permission to do so. Secession (that is, separation) took place in compliance with all formalities. Each state elected representatives to the state constitutional council who voted for or against secession. Based on the results of the voting, a “Decree on Secession” was issued.

Confederate government, left to right: Benjamin, Judah Philip, Stephen Mallory, Christopher Memminger, Alexander Stevens, Leroy Pope Walker, Jefferson Davis, John Henninger Regan, and Robert Toombs. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

On February 4, 1861, the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America opened, at which 6 states announced the formation of a new state - the Confederate States of America. On March 11, the Congress adopted the Constitution of the Confederate States of America, which replaced the previous Provisional Constitution.

Subsequently, the number of member states of the Confederation reached 11.

3. During the war, the South sought to extend slavery to the entire territory of the United States

As mentioned above, the South separated from the North and formed a separate state - the southerners had no plans to impose their will on the northerners. The struggle was for the "oscillating" states, where there was no predominance of one of the parties.

Officers of the 69th New York Infantry Regiment with Colonel Michael Corcoran, Fort Corcoran, Virginia. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

4. President Abraham Lincoln advocated the abolition of slavery throughout the United States from the beginning of the war.

The notion of Lincoln as a radical abolitionist is greatly exaggerated. Here are the words of Lincoln himself: “My main task in this struggle is to save the Union, and not to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing a single slave, I would do it, and if I had to free all the slaves to save it, I would do it too.

As for Lincoln's views on blacks, they looked like this: “I have never advocated and will not be for the social and political equality of two races - black and white, I have never supported the point of view that blacks get the right to vote, sit on a jury or held some office or married whites ... I will add that there is a physical difference between the white and black races ... and like any person, I am in favor of the white race occupying a dominant position.

The image of Lincoln as a great humanist was created by propaganda. In fact, Lincoln fought for the interests of the industrialists of the North and for the preservation of a unified state. The abolition of slavery became just one of the methods in the fight against the South.

Antietam, Maryland, President Lincoln on the battlefield. Photographer Alexander Gardner, October 1862. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

5. Opponents of slavery fought on the side of the North, its supporters fought on the side of the South

The most famous commander of the army of the North General Ulysses Grant was a slave owner. His slaves were not freed until the constitutional amendment abolishing slavery went into effect in 1865. When asked why he did not free the slaves himself, Grant replied: "Good help in the household is hard to find these days."

His main opponent, Commander of the Army of the South General Robert Lee, was an opponent of slavery and did not have slaves by the beginning of the Civil War. were not slave owners Southern Generals Joseph Johnston, Ambrose Hill, Fitzhew Lee and Jeb Stewart. Confederate States of America President Jefferson Davis wrote that slavery in the South would "come to naught" regardless of the outcome of the war.

As veterans of the Army of the South wrote, they fought not for the preservation of slavery, but for "the preservation of our supreme and sacred right to self-government."

6. Black Americans fought only in the ranks of the army of the North

In the Confederate army, black Americans fought from the very beginning of the conflict, but, unlike the North, they were not united into consolidated regiments.

There is nothing surprising in this, since in the territory of the southern states, according to the 1860 census, there were at least 240 thousand free black citizens. About 65 thousand blacks fought with weapons in their hands on the side of the Confederation. In 1865, on the eve of the defeat, a decision was officially made in the South allowing the recruitment of black slaves into the army. It was even supposed to form a 300,000-strong Negro army, but these plans were not implemented.

Meanwhile, in the militias of individual states of the South, subordinate to the governor of the state, and not to the central government, slaves began to serve almost from the moment the Civil War began. The units of the Confederate army were often international in composition: for example, whites, blacks, Hispanics and Indians fought together in the 34th cavalry regiment.

Tennessee, 1864 Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

7. The victory of the North brought freedom to black people in the USA.

Indeed, the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution, enacted in 1865, abolished slavery throughout the country. But the abolition of slavery gave blacks only personal freedom. There will be no question of giving them equal rights with the white population for many more decades.

Moreover, after the liberation of yesterday's slaves, the former owners drove them out of their lands, depriving them of all personal property. There was no violation in these actions, from the point of view of American laws.

At best, free blacks could go to work for their yesterday's masters. If this failed, then they were doomed to wander around the country in search of work. At the same time, a law was introduced in the United States prohibiting vagrancy.

As a result, this logically resulted in rampant "black crime", which, in turn, led to the creation of the racist organization Ku Klux Klan and numerous "lynchings" of blacks, which were the norm. American life up to the middle of the 20th century.

From February 1861 to April 9, 1865, America was engulfed in violent conflict. The tension that began to grow after the proclamation of US independence reached its peak. burst out Civil War was not just a war for territories, it became a huge test for the identity of the country. The economy of the plantation south, which was based on cultivation and cotton and supported by the persistence of slavery, is considered the main reason for the outbreak of the American Civil War. However, other disagreements contributed to the outbreak of armed conflict.

Multicultural North

The residents of the North lived in separate apartments and traded with merchants from all over the world. They were calm about cultural, ethnic and aesthetic diversity, which cannot be said about the inhabitants of the South. The impact of the Industrial Revolution was also more felt in the northern regions, with the construction of factories and factories producing cheaper products for the first time in many decades. There was also a social shift in the north, with the working artisans becoming the professional worker class. Some historians consider industrialization to be one of the catalysts for the war. Finally, with the advent of factories, society no longer needed slavery. The pressure of the North increased with the appearance in different regions of the United States of freedom advocates who advocated the abolition of serfdom.

southern plantation system

On the other hand, some historians say that it was the South's slave-owning agricultural economy that precipitated the conflict. Plantation owners lived off income from the land, not from investment and production. The economy of the South was constantly dependent on plantations and used heavy human labor.

Some historians blame the cotton industry for the development of slavery, ignoring the fact that slavery was introduced in the 17th century before it began. For the most part, slaves worked on tobacco and sugar plantations in Virginia. Cotton was not the main profitable crop of the South's economy until the 19th century, however, slavery continued to spread.

Compromise of 1850

The supporters of slavery wanted to expand the boundaries they had established and introduce the use of slaves in other parts of the country, while the opponents of slavery did their best to prevent these attempts. The Senate formed an Select Committee to resolve major disputes, leading to the Compromise of 1850. Compromise is a set of five provisions that establish the main directions for expansion and the main agreements.

Texas retreated from New Mexico and renounced its claim to territory north of the Missouri Compromise Line, but retained the Panhandle. The states of Utah and New Mexico received sovereignty in the matter of maintaining slavery in their territory. California was given the opportunity to join the union as a free state, and Colombia banned the slave trade on its territory while maintaining slavery.

Basically, all points of the Compromise removed the tension between the regions, except for one. The Fugitive Slave Act, passed as part of the Compromise of 1850, required all states to support the capture and return of fugitive slaves to their masters. This forced the free states to comply with the law until the Habeas Corpus Act was passed. It implied the obligation of the state authorities to help the escaped slaves. Disputes gained momentum and flared up with greater force. Some historians consider this law, along with the president's threats, to be the main cause of the civil war. However, many consider as such the election of a new president, Abraham Lincoln, with his anti-slavery views.

When Abraham Lincoln became president on November 6, 1860, the rebellious states pledged to leave the union before his official inauguration. North Carolina passed its ordinance secession on December 20, 1860. Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia supported secession and created their own constitution, calling themselves the Confederate States of America. President Buchanan and newly elected President Lincoln refused to recognize the new state, while Jefferson Davis became President of the Confederacy. The Confederate army attacked and defeated the Union army at Fort Sumter, forcing it to surrender. The civil war has begun.

Important battles

In the civil war, 8037 soldiers died from April to November 1861, and by its end it could have counted from 620 to 850 thousand victims. Many died of starvation and two-thirds of the army died from disease.

Typhoid fever, pneumonia and dysentery quickly spread through the field hospitals, while military camps starved 56,000 soldiers to death. During more than 50 battles, broken bones and deep wounds most often led to amputation, and the operations, in turn, were not sterile. The only antiseptics were chloroform and whiskey.

The Battle of Antietam was considered the bloodiest battle in the history of the war, it was a confrontation between Robert E. Lee and George McKellen. This battle was a major turning point in the course of the war.

McKellen's victory over Lee on September 17, 1862, justified Lincoln's announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation, which ended Lee's northward advance.

In addition to emancipating the slaves, the proclamation prohibited Britain from supporting and recognizing the Confederacy as a separate state. Left without its staunchest ally, the Confederation began to ponder its non-existent relationship with France.

"War is a hell of a way to resolve conflict"

Entitem witnessed the bloodiest battle of the war. Another battle that deserves the attention of historians is the Battle of Appomattox, which, in their opinion, was the last great battle of the war, despite the fact that it witnessed 250 more battles after it. On the morning of April 9, 1865, the Confederate troops under General Lee found themselves surrounded by the larger army of General Grant at Appomattox. Realizing that he could not win, Lee surrendered to Grant that evening at the home of Wilmer McLean. The formal surrender ceremony took place on 12 April.

The civil war was more than simple attempts to conquer new territories. The attempts of the South to keep slavery forced the inhabitants to unite. For supporters of the abolition of serfdom, this war and its results were an even greater incentive to promote ideas about the disappearance of slavery. For southern planters, by contrast, President Lincoln was a threat to their way of life. Slave states viewed Lincoln's Republican Party as a revolutionary organization created to end slavery.

With the end of the war, new laws began to appear to eradicate slavery. Southern planters took out their resentment and resentment on former slaves and their families. Jim Crow laws prevented slaves from living free lives by depriving them of the opportunity to enjoy simple civil rights. Terrorism was on the rise with the cross-burning Ku Klux Klan and workers civil rights fighting for the right to vote.

Slavery and its expansion was the catalyst for more serious disputes over states' rights. However, its existence would have ignited more and more disagreements and disputes for many centuries without any fundamental changes. The war ended slavery, but disputes over states' rights protected them, while practices used in other conservative states rendered big influence on their socially more progressive neighbors.

One of the few wars that took place on the territory of the United States is the Civil War. It flared up 150 years ago between the northern and southern states for determining the future fate of the institution of slavery in the young state.

Preconditions for war

Despite the apparent unity of the country, the attitude towards immigrants from Africa in the northern states was more severe, they lived separately from their white masters.

The southern states were focused on agricultural products, while the industry was more developed in the north. Complementing each other, both parts of the country were in symbiosis, but there were contradictions. The South wanted world trade, the North wanted to raise taxes on imports to protect industry.

There was no consensus on the fate of the new states joining the Union. There was no single point of view on the issues of slaves and their freedom, about whether the new state would be slave or free.

The Republican Party was formed in 1854 and Abraham Lincoln came to power in 1860.

Rice. 1. Portrait of Abraham Lincoln.

His main task was the fight against slavery and the adoption of all new states in the status of free. In response, the five states of the South announced their secession from the Union in January 1861. And shortly before that, on December 20, 1860, South Carolina announced the creation of a new state - the Confederation of the States of America (CSA), which also included the states that had recently left the Union. Eternal slavery was declared on this territory, and Jefferson Davis became the President of the new country. Later, 5 more states will join the CSA (total 11).

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The North could not accept this state of affairs. It was decided to force the CSA to return to the Union by force of arms. This was the beginning of the Civil War

American Civil War 1861-1865

Let us summarize the entire chronology of the main events of the Civil War in a general table.

Rice. 2. Map of the American Civil War.

On December 30, 1862, he signed the Emancipation Proclamation. On January 1, 1863, all slaves in the southern states were declared free.

It should be noted that the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole Indian tribes also spoke on the side of the CSA. They even had their representatives in the CSA Senate, who had the right to listen, but not to speak.

Speaking about the results of the American Civil War, it should be noted that the southerners were initially successful, however, thanks to the decrees of Abraham Lincoln, the northerners managed to win supporters in the south, which made a turning point in the war. As a result of hostilities, losses on both sides amounted to more than 600 thousand people, and 3 million dollars were spent on the purchase of weapons.

Rice. 3. Battle of Five Fox.

It should also be mentioned that on January 1, 1863, the Homestead Act signed by Lincoln came into force, according to which US citizens could receive ownership of unoccupied lands in the west of the country.

On December 18, 1865, the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution officially banned slavery. Immediately after the war, industry and the agricultural sector began to develop rapidly in the United States, and the domestic market strengthened. Power in the country was concentrated in the hands of the bourgeoisie of the northeastern states. By the way, many problems remain unresolved. The most striking of them is the preservation of the unequal rights of the black and white population.

What have we learned?

Speaking briefly about the American Civil War, it should be noted that it went on for quite a long time. Having turned the tide of the war, the northerners won it, establishing a new order in the young American state, realizing the tasks that they faced in the conflict with the South.

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The real causes of the American Civil War cause heated debate among researchers to this day. Thousands of books have been written on the subject scientific works and popular articles. main reason of such interest is a quantitative measure of the casualties suffered in the course of the war, which exceed any American military losses of any other wars.

Background of the war between the north and south of the United States of 1861 - 1865

Most people who know at least something about the American Civil War are sure that the cause was a "noble" goal - the emancipation of slaves, and those who worked on plantations in the southern states. In fact, the prerequisites were as follows:

At its core, the north and south of the United States were two different civilizations - states that existed and developed independently for a long time.

To understand the reasons for the outbreak of the Civil War, it is necessary to take into account one of the main factors in the relationship between the north and the south - economic. The North sought to sell its not very high quality, compared to European, industrial goods in the South as expensive as possible, while at the same time buying agricultural goods at a low price. It got to the point that it was more profitable for southerners to sell their own and buy manufactured goods in Europe, which was prosecuted by US laws.

In fact, the north towards the south pursued the same policy as Britain before the Revolutionary War.

The immediate causes of the outbreak and development of the war were the following events:

As can be seen from the reasons and sequence of actions of attempts to agree, after the outbreak of hostilities between the parties did not occur, and Lincoln and his government did everything to destroy the economic components of the southerners during the war, creating new reasons for them to resent.

The emancipation of the slaves became a disguise for the forced obedience of the southern states.

As can be seen from the previous text, the causes of the Civil War are far from being as noble as we used to think, and the northern civilization in this war mainly pursued its own mercantile, economic goals. Particularly interesting is that black slaves as a result of the war did not receive equality with free whites, especially in the southern states.