History extended essay

Causes of Civil war

During the 1820s and 1850s there were lots of political and social tensions between the North and South over slavery. Since independence in 1783 there was a huge division between the North and South, because of slavery, in where the South dominated the congress, because it had more lands. Because of this difference of power lots of conflicts were created. In thisessay we will discuss how some events created problems, politically and socially.

The Missouri Compromise had created tensions politically and socially, as Ever since independence in 1783; the south dominated the Presidency and Congress. It wanted to maintain this dominance at all cost. As the North had expanded west it had created new states as well as the South. The Westward expansion ofthe U.S. brought the issue of Slavery right to the front of U.S. politics. The problem that this brought was that it was clear that tensions were increasing as both the North and South wanted to create more states, this generated competition, which was unusual in a country, and this created internal competition leading to instability. The problem really started when the South declared that Missouriwas going to be a salve state, the problem was that in reality this state was on the North side, and if it became a Slave state the North would lose even more power in the Congress. The North decided to change the rules, so in that way it could challenge the South economically and “to weaken the political ascendancy in the union…” This generated a great dispute between the North and South, becausethe South threatened the North, saying that America would face terrible consequences if they stopped slavery. As a result the South kept its dominance in congress; this caused a great discomfort in the North, because the South was still very strong politically, Slavery could continue spreading in the South, but it couldn’t in the Northern area. This had helps to keep peace in America, but it hadcreated a line division between the South and the North. This has helped to create the civil war, because none of the two sides were satisfy with the compromise, the North wanted to reduce the politically part on the South, and socially the South wasn´t comfortable because the North was trying to avoid slavery.

The Nullification Affair has created tensions politically and socially, as theSouth was furious by the action that the Congress took, about including taxation to all the products that came from Europe. The result about this was that South Carolina rejected to this action, and she decided not to accept the tariff, this was a huge problem because it threatens the whole nation. This event brought the civil war even more near, because as not other state joined with SouthCarolina, the President prepare the war for the invasion. For the first time, war was being prepared versus a state, by the central Government in Washington. Next time, this point would be reached much more quickly. As a result the congress reduced the tariff. This event has shown that the South could achieve what it wanted, and this event has clearly shown “The fragility of the American Union…”Therefore this event has shown us that the Nullification affair has caused tensions politically because it had been shown that a small state could win over the whole congress and socially there were even more tensions between the South and the North, because this event has clearly shown that there was fragility in the American Union.

Another problem that has caused tensions politically andeconomically was the Annexation of Texas, the Wilmot Proviso The compromise of 1850, as the American settlers, and their slaves, had been settling in Mexico for years. If Texas was taken, it would be another slave sate, giving the rich planters more representation in Congress, and this would show how the spread of slavery could not be stopped. On 1833 the Americans created a revolution against the...