Political Science

In its history, America has been involved in several wars. The United States involvement in wars has been promoted by different factors. The country has also been called upon by various countries to help end war and its intervention has had various effects on the country and on others as well. However, the American Civil War remains one of the greatest wars that were fought in US homeland.  This war did not attract other countries since it was an ideological war between different states in the country.  This article will address the cause as well as the results of the Civil War in America.

The American Civil War was a conflict between different states.  Between 1861 and 1865, there was war between the southern states and the Union. The southern states were comprised of eleven states which had declared secession from the main Union and henceforth formed the Confederate States. The Union was mainly composed of Northern States which wanted to have a strong United States of America that lived to its ideals.  Therefore the Union was referred to as the North and in normal description, American Civil War was said to be a war between North and South (Golden 2009).   The main cause of American Civil War was abolishment of slaves as had been proposed by the Union.  In 1860, Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election and henceforth announced the need for abolishment of slavery and freeing of all slaves in the United States. In his campaign Lincoln had expressed the need to have a free America where everybody, including the slaves, lived as free people.  He argued that there was no need for expansion of slavery and those states which had not abolished slavery had to do so.  When Republicans led by Lincoln won the elections, seven Southern states seceded from the Union before Lincoln was sworn in to the office.

Consequently, secession by states was considered a rebellion against the spirit of togetherness and the errant states had to be forcefully brought back to the Union. The reason behind the Civil War may not be articulated only to slavery debate but to other issues such as oppression by the federal government. There were issues of high taxation and the citizens had grudges against the government for a long period of time.
The first hostility was manifested in April, 12, 1861. The US military fort was attacked by the Confederate forces in South Carolina.  After this incident, the President called upon volunteer military from every state. This meant hostility against Confederate and was followed by secession by other four states in the South making the rebels states eleven.  There were two sides in rebellion, the eleven states against the United States. Both the northern and the southern states were guided by the ideas of Jefferson who emphasized that all people were equally created thus slavery was unjustified and all slaves had to be freed. The president declared that slavery was a very important issue to be handled more seriously because it was bringing divisions in both territories, especially on who was supposed to have control over them. The confederate government wanted to sign a peace treaty with Abraham Lincolns government but he declared that he did not recognize the Confederate as a legitimate government.

The first military attack was sectioned by the Confederate government led by Jefferson Davis. This led to capture of Fort Pickens.  After this aggression, President Abraham Lincoln asked his troops to go and recapture the Fort as well as preserve the Union. However, there were states which refused to send their troops, including Tennessee and North Carolina.  US general commander, who then was Winfield Scott, came up with an Anaconda plan which he purposed to win the war without blood shed. The plan was intended to weaken the Confederate economy thus giving them an easy way of capturing Mississippi River and thus splitting the southern region (Golden 2009).

This plan was enacted by the President through the formation of Union blockade in 1862. The blockade managed to stop most of the local port-to-port travels. This resulted in food shortage among other necessities in the region.  The Confederate Navy then waged war against the Union army but the battle ended up at a draw and the Union was satisfied because the blockade was still maintained. This failure forced the Confederate to seek help from the British army. There were several wars that followed after this first war and many people lost their lives (Golden 2009).

Results
This was the worst war in the history of the United States, since it resulted in death of 620, 000 soldiers and many citizens casualties. After the Union triumphed in the war, slavery was abolished in the whole country and southern states had to be admitted back to the Union depending on their record on abolishment of slavery.  Slaves were freed through the emancipation proclamation which declared them as equal citizens of the United States.  These were slaves in the confederate regions. Those in the border and the Union were also declared free by action in 1865.  The contentious postwar was the main idea behind the reconstruction era. In addition, the black slaves that were freed amounted approximately 4 million (Golden, 2009).   The 1860 census portrayed that there were a total of 8 of the entire male population aged between 13 and 43 that had died in the course of the war.  Most of this group was from the North while a few came from the southern part. The main reason of the high number of deaths came about because of the Napoleonic tactics used in the war.

It was a devastating experience to the American community and, as it has been shown, the results were both positive and negative. Loss of lives was the most devastating experience, yet on the positive side, it was a great relieve to the slaves. War came about due to a number of reasons but mostly it occurred as a result of misunderstanding and misbelieves that peoples needs may be achieved only through fighting.