Certina Rolle
10 Henry
History Assignment
American Civil War

Causes of the American Civil War

The American Civil War was a war fought within the United States of America between the North (Union) and the South (Confederacy) starting from 1861 and ending in 1865. There were many said causes that led to the American Civil War. They were social, political and economic, however, the root of the Civil War was slavery. There were many factors that contributed to the onset of the Civil War. Socially, the North and the South were built on different standards. The South, or the Slave States, was a slave-based community that followed a class-based system. This system consisted of upper classes, middle class and then slavery. Many depended on slaves and were accustomed to this way of life, which was hard to change. Plantation owners had slaves working for them, and those who could not afford to own slaves would work on their own farm. The North had more immigrants settling in its areas, where labor was needed, but not the labor of slaves. Therefore it had a more developed society where most people worked in factories, and did not follow a class system. The Northerners opposed to Slavery as a body in the South, as the Confederate States were the only region in the world that still legalized the ownership of slaves. This angered the Southerners and threatened their way of life. Economic differences also developed between the two regions. The Southern states were farming states, and depended on agriculture rather than industrialization. After the Cotton Gin was invented, it increased the need for slaves and made cotton the chief crop of the South. The South was able to produce 7/8 of the world’s supply of cotton. This increased the South's dependence on the plantation system and its vital component, slavery. But by then, the North was prospering industrially. It