Civil War 1861 1865 causes. Civil War

Lately, in every post of mine that touches on the history of the United States in the 19th century, a certain number of wise guys come running, and let’s teach me in the comments: “How naive do you have to be to believe that the American Civil War began because of slavery? !" After this, they always explain to me that, of course, none of the Americans of that time would have fought against slavery, but in fact, the reason was completely different.

It's time to respond in detail to this strange criticism, which is primarily based on the substitution of concepts. What started the Civil War? I'll tell you briefly.

As we remember, at the end of the 18th century, when 13 separate colonies came together and founded the United States of America, the issue of slavery was too sensitive to touch upon. , adopted at that time to preserve this conflict. The result was a certain balance - the strength of the slave and free states in the US Congress was approximately equal. At the same time, the economies of the two sides developed in very different directions. In the South, the main source of income became tobacco and cotton plantations - cheap labor was required here, while the North was drawn into the Industrial Revolution and began to develop industry, which required more skilled workers. As a result, the population of the northern states began to grow faster than in the south.

In the first half of the 19th century, the United States began to expand westward, acquiring new territories. Settlers in these territories wished to join the union as new states, adding to one camp or another. In the process, America has experienced several serious crises over 30 years that were resolved by compromise. As a rule, the parties agreed on the creation of new states symmetrically: from 1820 to 1850, the number of free and slave states remained approximately the same.

But then this trend began to change. America was already a country of immigrants. The vast majority of the settlers coming from Europe were against slavery, and they did not have the money to buy slaves. Many of these people settled in new territories, which is why more and more new states decided to ban slavery within their borders by the mid-19th century. The balance of power in the Senate began to shift.

By 1860, Southerners already felt like a political minority. Northern politicians dominated both houses of Congress, and anti-slavery sentiment in the North grew stronger. Residents of the North had long viewed slavery as an immoral institution, and then books like Uncle Tom's Cabin began to stir up public opinion.

Of course, there were conflicts of various kinds between the North and the South - economic and political, but almost all of them were rooted in the most important difference between these states: some prohibited slavery, others flourished because of it.

The presidential election of 1860 was a decisive moment: Abraham Lincoln received only 40% of the vote, but received more than the required half of the electors and won. Lincoln built his political career in northern Illinois and was an outspoken anti-slavery man (but by today's standards a racist). Because of such views, his candidacy was unacceptable to southerners - moreover, in most southern states he was simply not included on the ballot! Despite this, he was able to win, thus showing that the political influence of the South was over, and he would no longer be able to block laws unfavorable to him in the federal government.

A month and a half after Lincoln's victory, South Carolina announced its secession from the United States. In January 1861, four more states followed suit. Thus began a chain of events that ultimately led to war. Almost all of the declarations of secession of the southern states mentioned the preservation of the institution of slavery in the list of reasons why they were taking such a serious step.

For example:

Declaration

the immediate causes which compel and justify the withdrawal of the State of Mississippi from the federal union:

In view of the serious step which our State has taken in severing its ties with the Government of which we have been so long a part, it is but fair to state the important reasons which have led us to this course of action.

Our position is strongly identified with the institution of slavery - the greatest material benefit of the world. Its labor produces the product which forms the largest and most important part of the commercial activity of the whole earth. These products are characteristic of a climate that borders on the tropical, and according to the laws of nature, no one except the black race can endure the heat of the tropical sun...

By April 1861, the first military operations began, and they were also started by the southerners. Lincoln deliberately waited so as not to attack first. The southern states demanded that the North transfer military fortifications that belonged to the US federal government to their countries. And when they refused, the Army of the South attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina. After this, Lincoln had a free hand - he could claim that the war was started by the southern Confederacy.

Most historians agree that it was the secession of the southern states that led to the war, and that this secession was motivated by the desire to preserve the established slave order in the South. To argue that slavery was not the most important cause of the Civil War is simply ridiculous. However, few people think that the North's motivation in this conflict was to end slavery. Indeed, many of them found it unpleasant, but not enough to risk their lives for its abolition. The northerners fought to maintain a unified state, while the southerners wanted to secede in order to preserve their special way of life and the social structure of society. But everything they wanted to preserve grew directly out of the institution of slavery.

Arguments like “Lincoln himself was a racist” don’t work here. Yes, I was. He was against slavery not because of any belief in the equality of blacks and whites, but on moral and religious grounds. But most of all, he wanted to preserve the integrity of the country he led in such a difficult hour. He failed to maintain it as a divided nation, so he achieved integrity without slavery by war, first abolishing it by decree only in the rebellious territories.

It would be foolish to say that Northerners fought the Civil War to end slavery. This is not the position of those who see slavery as the main cause of that war. It’s just that the southerners absolutely declared independence and fought to preserve the institution of slavery. Too many things in their society depended on him.

PS: Of course, a lot of smart people came to this post too. Dear smart people! I will be happy to discuss this topic with you in the comments, provided that you understand the difference between the following two statements:

1. One of the main reasons leading to the American Civil War was the fact that the South had slavery and the North did not.
2. Northerners started the Civil War for the freedom (or equality!) of black slaves in the South.

These are two very different positions. Before you argue, understand that my post states the first but not the second.

April 12 marked the 150th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War, also called the War between the North and the South.

The main cause of the Civil War (1861-1865) was the acute contradictions between different socio-economic systems that existed in one state - the bourgeois north and the slave-owning south.

In 1860, Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States. His victory became a signal of danger for the slave owners of the south and led to secession - the withdrawal of the southern states from the Union. South Carolina was the first to leave the United States at the end of December 1860, followed in January 1861 by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, and in April-May - Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. These 11 states formed the Confederate States of America (the Confederacy), adopted a constitution, and elected former Mississippi Senator Jefferson Davis as their president.

The capital of the Confederacy was the city of Richmond, Virginia. The emerging states occupied 40% of the entire US territory with a population of 9.1 million people, including over 3.6 million blacks. There were 23 states left in the Union. The population of the northern states exceeded 22 million people; almost all of the country's industry, 70% of railroads, and 81% of bank deposits were located on its territory.

First stage of the war (1861-1962)

The fighting began on April 12, 1861, with a Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, which was forced to surrender after 34 hours of bombardment. In response, Lincoln declared the southern states in rebellion, declared a naval blockade of their coasts, called for volunteers, and later introduced conscription.

The main goal of the northerners in the war was the preservation of the Union and the integrity of the country, the southerners - recognition of the independence and sovereignty of the Confederation. The strategic plans of the parties were similar: an attack on the enemy’s capital and the dismemberment of its territory.

The fighting of the main forces unfolded in the Washington-Richmond direction.

The first major battle took place in Virginia at the Manassas railroad station on July 21, 1861. 33 thousand soldiers of Northern General Irwin McDowell were opposed by 32 thousand Confederates led by Pierre Beauregard and Joseph Johnston. The northern troops, having crossed the Bull Run Creek, attacked the southerners, but were forced to begin a retreat, which turned into a flight.

The defeat at Manassas forced the Lincoln government to take vigorous measures to deploy and strengthen units and formations, mobilize the economic resources of the North, and build defensive structures. A new strategic plan was developed (the “Anaconda Plan”), which provided for the creation of a ring around the southern states by the army and navy, which was supposed to be gradually compressed until the final suppression of the rebels.

McDowell was replaced by General George McClellan, formerly commander of the Army of West Virginia.

In April 1862, a 100,000-strong army of northerners under the command of General McClellan again attempted to capture Richmond, but on the approaches to the capital of the southern states they encountered a well-prepared system of engineering fortifications. In the battle between June 26 and July 2 on the Chickahominy River (east of Richmond) with an army of 80,000 southerners, the northerners were defeated and retreated to Washington.

In September 1862, the commander-in-chief of the rebel army, General Lee, attempted to capture Washington, but was unable to achieve victory and was forced to retreat. The northerners' attempt to launch a new attack on Richmond was also unsuccessful.

In the west and south in the Mississippi Valley, military operations were private. Northern troops under the command of General Ulysses Grant occupied Memphis, Corinth and New Orleans.

Influenced by failures at the front, the threat to Washington and the demands of the population of the northern states, Congress in 1862 implemented a number of measures to change the methods of warfare. At the same time, a law was passed on the confiscation of the property of the rebels.

Of particular importance were the Homestead (land) law adopted on May 20, 1862, which gave the right to a US citizen who did not fight on the side of the South to receive a plot of land, as well as Lincoln’s Proclamation of September 22, 1862 on emancipation from January 1, 1863 . black slaves in the rebellious states (slavery was prohibited by law in the northern states). Blacks were freed without ransom, but also without land. They could serve in the army and navy.

The second stage of the war (1863-1865) was characterized by important changes in the political life of the country, in the strategy and tactics of the federal army.

On March 3, 1863, conscription was introduced for the first time in the history of the United States. In the northern states, the army was replenished with new formations; about 190 thousand blacks joined it (72% of them came from the southern states), 250 thousand blacks served in the rear units.

The beginning of May 1863 was marked by the Battle of Chancellorville, during which the 130,000-strong northern army was defeated by the 60,000-strong army of General Lee. The losses of the parties were: the northerners had 17,275, and the southerners 12,821 people killed and wounded. The northerners retreated again, and Lee, bypassing Washington from the north, entered Pennsylvania. In this situation, the outcome of the three-day battle for Gettysburg in early July became of great importance. As a result of bloody battles, Lee's troops were forced to retreat to Virginia and clear Union territory.

In the western theater, Grant's army, after a multi-day siege and two unsuccessful assaults, captured the Vicksburg fortress on July 4, 1863. On July 8, General Nathaniel Banks' soldiers took Port Hudson in Louisiana. Thus, control over the Mississippi River valley was established, and the Confederacy was divided into two parts. The year ended with a convincing victory at Chattanooga, which was the gateway to the East.

In the early spring of 1864, under the general leadership of Ulysses Grant, who was appointed commander-in-chief of the northern forces in March, a new strategic plan was developed, which provided for the delivery of three main attacks: Meade's 122,000-strong Potomac Army, advancing from north to south, was supposed to defeat the main forces of Lee's army and take possession of Richmond; General William Sherman's 100,000-strong army had the task of advancing from west to east, bypassing the Allegheny Mountains from the south, capturing the main economic areas of the southerners in Georgia, reaching the Atlantic Ocean and then striking the main forces of General Joseph Johnston's army from the south; Butler's 36,000-strong army was to attack Richmond from the east.

The offensive of federal troops began in early May 1864. The “march to the sea” of General Sherman’s army from the city of Chattanooga (Tennessee) through the city of Atlanta was of great importance. Overcoming the resistance of the southerners, Sherman's troops occupied Atlanta on September 2, captured the city of Savannah on December 21 and reached the Atlantic coast. Sherman then led his troops north, occupied the city of Columbia (February 18, 1865) and reached the rear of the main forces of Lee's army, whose position had become hopeless.

In the spring of 1865, federal troops under Grant's command resumed the offensive and occupied Richmond on April 3. The southern troops retreated, but were overtaken by Grant and surrounded. On April 9, Lee's army surrendered at Appomattox. The remaining Confederate troops ceased resistance by June 2, 1865. Shortly after the victory, on April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was mortally wounded by a Confederate agent and died the next day.

Results of the war

The Civil War remained the bloodiest in US history. Northern losses amounted to almost 360 thousand people killed and died from wounds and more than 275 thousand wounded. The Confederates lost 258 thousand killed and about 100 thousand wounded. The US government's military spending alone reached $3 billion.

In the United States, during the Civil War, for the first time in American history, a massive regular army of the modern type was created. The experience and military traditions acquired in 1861-865 were used during the formation of the American army half a century later, during the First World War.

As a result of the Civil War, at the cost of great losses, the unity of the United States was preserved and slavery was eliminated. The prohibition of slavery was enshrined in the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution, which came into force on December 18, 1865.

Conditions were created in the country for the accelerated development of industrial and agricultural production, the development of Western lands, and the strengthening of the domestic market.

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There is no moment in United States history more controversial than the Civil War. The two halves of the country tried to resolve their fundamental differences in political, economic and social issues with the help of weapons. The war began on April 12, 1861, when the Confederates shelled Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

At first, the southerners inflicted a series of painful defeats on the northerners, but as the fighting dragged on, the northerners were able to realize their economic and human potential. After the Battle of Appomattox in April 1865, the southerners began to surrender en masse, but some units fought until May-June. US President Abraham Lincoln never lived to see the enemy's complete surrender.

Over the course of 5 years of fierce hostilities, 625 thousand people died. The Americans lost little more in World War II. The Civil War is a cornerstone of American culture. A number of stereotypes have developed about it, its causes and heroes, which historians are trying to debunk.

Southern states seceded from the state due to violation of their rights. The Confederacy claimed the right to secede, but not a single state seceded from the Union. The disagreement was that the southern states opposed the decision of their northern neighbors not to support slavery. On December 24, 1860, a meeting was held in South Carolina to discuss possible secession from the Federal Union. The delegates adopted a declaration outlining the reasons justifying the move. Among other things, there was growing hostility on the part of non-slaveholding states towards the institution of slavery. The delegates protested to their northern neighbors who were not fulfilling their constitutional obligations by hiding fugitive slaves. So the reasons for the conflict lie not in states' rights, but in fundamental differences over the issue of slavery.

South Carolina was unhappy that New York refused to return the fugitives. In New England, blacks were generally given the right to vote, and societies appeared there to combat such inequality. In fact, South Carolina spoke out against civil rights and freedom of speech in states that opposed slavery. Declarations adopted in other southern states were similar.

Southern states seceded due to tax policies. Today, supporters of the Confederacy argue that tax policy was the cause of the Civil War. Allegedly, high duties on goods from the southern states helped the northerners to boost their industry. But such statements are fictitious. Due to high duties, the Nullification Crisis of 1831-1833 arose. Then South Carolina demanded that some federal laws be removed, threatening to secede from the Union if it refused. But then other states did not support these requirements, and they were withdrawn. Tax policy did not cause secession at all; the declarations of other states do not mention this. The tariffs of 1857, applied throughout America, were invented by southerners. And these taxes were the lowest since 1816.

Most southerners did not own slaves, and they had no intention of advocating for this institution. Indeed, in the South, slaves were owned by a minority. In Mississippi, less than half of the farmers owned property in the form of people. And in Virginia and Tennessee, the ratio was even smaller. In areas where slavery was weak, the majority did not support secession from the United States. West Virginia decided to remain in the Union. Then Confederate forces had to occupy eastern Tennessee and northern Alabama to keep these states from falling to the northerners. Southerners, even those who did not have slaves, were convinced by ideological factors. Social optimism is important to Americans. They look up to the rich and hope to one day achieve the same status. Financially strapped farmers hoped to use war to win fortune, status, and slaves.

Another factor was the idea that the superiority of white people over black people was justified and fair. Even in the north many people thought so, and in the south - almost everyone. Southerners convinced their neighbors to stand up for the institution of slavery, depicting the horrors of a possible race war. It seemed that the Americans would be destroyed or driven out. Thus, the conflict also lay in the postulate of the superiority of one race over another.

Abraham Lincoln began to fight to eradicate slavery. The Civil War resulted in the abolition of slavery. Many people think that this was Lincoln's original goal. In fact, the North began to fight to maintain the unity of the country. On August 22, 1862, the President wrote a famous letter to the New York Tribune. There he directly stated that if he could save the Union without freeing the slaves, he would do so. Lincoln intended to preserve the state even if it was necessary to free all or some of the slaves. The president took any actions in relation to slavery in the name of saving the Union. But far better known are Lincoln's personal statements against slavery. He believed that every person has the right to freedom. The official position and personal point of view converged in the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

Southerners did not cling to slavery. By 1860, Southerners produced 75 percent of America's exports. The value of slaves was greater than all the manufacturing plants, factories, and railroads in the United States. No one wanted to give up such wealth without a fight. And the Confederation planned to expand its possessions towards Cuba and Mexico. Only war could stop these plans. By 1860, slavery had become a well-established, profitable system in the South. The elite was rapidly growing rich. The further, the less likely it was to free slaves in the South and North. The strong position of the slave owners could only be ended by military means.

The war is called Civil. The term Civil War of the North and South is also often found in literature. But this type of military action implies a struggle for power in the state between social groups. But the South did not at all seek to overthrow the Lincoln government. It is correct to call those events the War between the States, the War for Southern Independence. So the term Civil War is incorrect. The South was more backward from an economic point of view. For some reason, the undeveloped and backward part lasted four whole years. If you evaluate the facts about the south

America, then an interesting picture will emerge. A third of all America's railroads were in this region. And although the transport network of the North was more developed, for the southerners it was still ahead of other countries. By the 1860s, per capita income in the South was 10 percent higher than all states west of New York and Pennsylvania.

At the beginning of the war, all the best federal officers went over to the side of the southerners. This myth is generated by individual vivid stories. The most revealing one is related to the biography of General Robert E. Lee. He initially commanded the Texas District and opposed southern secession. Following the secession of his state, Lee resigned his post and returned to his family in the District of Columbia. On March 28, 1861, Lincoln appointed him commander of a cavalry regiment. On April 18, Robert E. Lee was offered the position of commander in chief. But he refused, and a few days later he agreed to lead the army of southerners in Virginia.

Grant has always been considered a hero. On April 16, 1861, just four days after the attack on Fort Sumter, Ulysses Grant volunteered for the army, coming under the command of General Henry Halleck. The two military leaders had different leadership styles. Halleck began to complain frequently about Grant's insubordination. Although Grant won important battles in February 1862, Halleck took advantage of the lack of communication and complained about Grant to General McClellan in Washington. He replied that for the future success of the case against people like Grant, a trial is required. The higher authorities allowed the arrest of the rebellious general. Fortunately for everyone, Halleck had cooled down by the time this permission came to him. He only removed Grant from command and kept him in reserve. This continued until Halleck himself went to Washington for a promotion. Grant's rise began after Lincoln refused to fire the general, explaining that "he is fighting."

The Battle of Glory saw African Americans fight for the first time. The first African-American military unit created in the North was the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He appeared in 1863 and in the same year took part in the assault on Fort Wagner. This battle was called the “Battle of Glory”, in which the regiment lost half of its personnel. A famous painting was created about those events. But even before the Emancipation Proclamation in October 1862, the First Kansas Colored Infantry fought and drove back Confederate cavalry near Island Mound in Missouri. This unit was created by local Union authorities in August 1862, while the regular US Army refused to accept blacks into its ranks. In late October, about 240 African Americans were sent to Bates, Missouri, to defeat Confederate guerrillas. Outnumbered, the northerners took over a local farm and named it Fort Africa. After two days of fighting, reinforcements arrived and the Southerners retreated. The skirmish was minor in the scale of the war, but it became famous. It was she who helped establish African-American regular units, one of which became the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

The first land battle was the Battle of Bull Run. Another name for this battle is the Battle of Manassas. The Civil War began on April 12, 1861, with the shelling of Fort Sumter. It is believed that the first major battle was the Battle of Manassas. Southerners nicknamed him "The Great Draper." On July 21, the army of the North encountered comparable forces of the southerners, but was put to shameful flight. But even earlier, in June 1861, Union troops surprised the Confederates at Philippi, Virginia. The Northern press called the enemy's undignified retreat the "Philippi Race." That small skirmish resulted in no casualties, but had some interesting consequences. The US Army victory helped support the secession movement in West Virginia. George McClellan received the coveted position of general in Washington. And Federation soldier James Edward Hunger lost his leg in that battle, which is why he invented the world's first realistic and flexible prosthesis.

The war ended at Appomattox. On April 9, 1865, General Lee surrendered with the remnants of his Army of Northern Virginia to General Grant near Appomattox. But fighting continued elsewhere. General Joseph Johnston surrendered with the Army of the Tennessee, the second largest in the Confederacy, to General Sherman. On May 4, General Richard Taylor and 12 thousand soldiers laid down their arms. And on May 12-13, a battle took place near the Palmito ranch, won by the southerners. This battle was the last in that war. General Kirby Smith wanted to continue the war, but his opponent, General Simon Buckner, surrendered on May 26. The remaining parts of the Confederate army surrendered until the end of June. The last to lay down his arms was Stand Watie, in Indian territory. And the war at sea generally continued until November, when the raiders, former Confederates, surrendered.

The Civil War took place in the United States. Private Confederate ships (legalized pirates) and mercantile raiders on the high seas made life miserable for American carriers. The pirates blocked the routes to the Union by sailing around Bermuda, stationed in the Bahamas and Cuba. Merchant ships, sailing ships and steamships were captured, and a ransom was required for the release of them and their crew. The Union tried to resist this. Thus, the USS Wachusett attacked the CSS Florida in Bahia Harbor, Brazil. This led to an international scandal. The USS Wyoming pursued the CSS Alabama throughout the Far East without ever catching it. Even Japanese troops took part in the showdown between the Americans. The CSS Shenandoah began patrolling the shipping lanes between the Cape of Good Hope and Australia in October 1864, terrorizing American whalers. The ship continued to attack even after the Confederate ground forces surrendered. During this time, the southerners captured 21 ships, including 11 in just seven hours in the Pacific Ocean in polar waters. The raider surrendered with her crew only on November 6, 1865 in Liverpool, England.

Soldiers constantly participated in battles. In the 19th century, due to dirt roads and the inability to travel in any weather, the army had to plan its actions according to the seasons. Almost all of the events of the Civil War, until the final desperate months in late 1864 and early 1865, took place in seasonal campaigns. The armies fought in late spring, summer and autumn-winter. This is why the average soldier in that war fought virtually one day a month. The rest of the time he was walking somewhere, digging, or simply being in a camp where his life was in danger. Primitive field conditions and the rudimentary level of medicine ensured that each soldier had a 25% chance of not surviving the war, even without participating in battles. Less than a third of the 360,000 Allied deaths were directly related to combat. The rest died of disease, mainly dysentery.

The northerners had no problems with financing. A common myth is that the poor South was pitted against the rich North. Meanwhile, there were also serious financial problems - the war turned out to be a very costly affair. The Union was not ready to allocate funds for the army. Lincoln's election as president in 1860 shocked Wall Street. To make matters worse, back in the 1830s, President Andrew Jackson ended the centralized banking system, calling it subversive of government rights and dangerous to the freedom of the people. The US government did not have a quick and easy way to find funds to finance the war economy. The situation was further aggravated by the fact that there were more than 10 thousand different types of paper money in circulation. With the help of the Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon Chase, Lincoln managed to restore at least some order in affairs. This made it possible to wage war. However, some units, especially African Americans, sometimes went months without receiving their salaries. One result of this was the first federal income tax in the United States, passed in 1862. The Confederacy introduced its own similar tax in 1863.

The war was fought with primitive firearms. Modern war is unthinkable without missiles and electricity. Sometimes prohibited chemical and biological weapons are used. It's hard to believe, but all of these technologies were used during the Civil War. Floating containers of explosives designed to sink ships have been used since the American Revolution. But the Confederates took weapons to a new level by adding electric detonators. The world's first electric minefield appeared on Mississippi. The wires went to the shore, from where a signal for an explosion could be sent. The same weapon was used in the Eastern Theater of War, where the USS Commodore Jones was sunk in May 1864. Gunpowder rockets were used as early as the Mexican-American Civil War in 1840. During the Civil War, such weapons were used by both sides. The Union even had a Rocket Battalion consisting of 160 people. Southerners attempted germ warfare by contaminating clothing with yellow fever (unsuccessfully) and smallpox (partially successful). During the retreat, water sources and animal carcasses were poisoned.

The Confederates were able to create a two-stage rocket, launching it from Richmond to Washington. There is a legend that the winged weapon was able to fly 190 kilometers. “MythBusters” decided to check this myth. They created a rocket in two days using only materials that existed during the Civil War. True, the rocket was single-stage. She was able to fly only 450 meters.

There were no slave owners among the northerners. John Sixkiller was a Cherokee who served in the First Kansas Colored Infantry. He fought and died in that famous Battle of Island Mound. Ironically, he himself was a slave owner, leading his men into battle with him. For the Cherokees, African American slaves were common. From the borderlands of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, men poured into the American military. The example of Kentucky is particularly illustrative. There, a quarter of the families who owned slaves at the beginning of the war sent 90 combat units to fight for the Union. General Grant's wife had slaves in her service. They gained freedom only as a result of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865. Grant honestly said that he did not release the slaves before, since they helped well with the housework. And the famous “Declaration of Emancipation” declared free only the slaves of states in a state of rebellion. Lincoln did not seek to free all slaves; this could displease his own supporters. He wanted to undermine the power of the southerners by promising their slaves freedom.

Presidents Lincoln and Davis spent the war in their offices. It seems that the heads of the parties were playing a giant chess game, directing the war from their offices. In fact, both men were also in the fields during the battles. Thus, in 1862, Jefferson Davis oversaw the bloody Battle of Seven Pines, changing commanders during the battle. It was Robert Lee. Abraham Lincoln visited Fort Stevens outside Washington in 1864, even coming under enemy fire. Then the famous phrase of Southern General Early was born: “We didn’t take Washington, but we scared the hell out of Abe Lincoln.” The President also visited General Grant's headquarters on March 24, 1865, at a key moment in the Siege of Richmond. Lincoln was on a ship close enough to the front line to hear the gunfire as the city was taken. Immediately after the battle, the President entered the city and symbolically sat in the chair of the escaped Jefferson Davis.

“The American Civil War 1861-1865: causes, course, results”

Causes of the war

The victory of the first bourgeois Revolution, which was American Revolutionary War against England at the end of the 18th century, created the conditions for the capitalist development of the United States. Natural conditions also contributed to rapid economic growth: mild climate and rich mineral resources.

However, in the United States, capitalist relations developed unevenly. If in northern states bourgeois order, farm agriculture quickly established itself, capitalist industry grew, then in southern states The slave system dominated.

The main obstacle to capitalist development throughout the country was slavery . The planters of the South farmed using extensive methods, constantly needed new lands and sought to seize fertile lands in the West. But these lands were also claimed by the North American bourgeoisie, farmers and settlers. These factors led to contradictions between the capitalist North and the slave-owning South.

The need to abolish slavery became inevitable. During the armed struggle against slavery, Kansas was formed Republican Party, which united in its ranks the bourgeoisie, farmers - opponents of slavery.

Progress of the war

The reason for the war between the North and the South was the election in 1860 to the presidency of the United States Abraham Lincoln- a supporter of the abolition of slavery. The planters at their congress decided to secede the slave states from the Union and began preparing for war. In 1861 these states created Confederation, whose troops rebelled in April and captured forts and arsenals in the south of the country.

The outbreak of the Civil War was the result exacerbation of economic and socio-political contradictions between two social systems: the system hired labor and the system slavery. The nature of the war was bourgeois-democratic revolution , the second revolution on US soil.

After a series of military failures, the government of A. Lincoln, at the request of workers, farmers, and the bourgeoisie, turned to revolutionary methods waging war. The army was replenished with thousands of volunteers and blacks who fled to the North, then it was introduced conscription . Now the northerners fought a war not only to restore the unity of the country and prevent the spread of slavery, but also abolition of the slavery system, free distribution of land , i.e. The objectives of the war became revolutionary.

Of great importance for the success of the northerners was Homestead Act, adopted in 1862 1862 a government statement on the emancipation of slaves was signed. Tens of thousands of former slaves volunteered for the army. The military initiative passed to the northerners.

Northern victory in the Civil War provided:

1. eliminating the economic and political disunity of the country,
2. abolition of slavery,
3. democratic resolution of the agrarian question in the West of the country,
4. victory of the farmer (American) way of agricultural development in most of the United States,
5. creation of a single national market,
6. expansion of democratic rights of citizens.

American Civil War 1861-1865 years was first stage second bourgeois-democratic revolution.

Reconstruction of the South.

Years Reconstruction of the South (1865-1877 ) become second stage second bourgeois-democratic revolution . The goal of Reconstruction was to introduce bourgeois-democratic changes in the southern states and limit the power of former slave owners. All power was temporarily transferred federal troops .

December 1865 Congress approved the emancipation of blacks, and in 1866 G. 14th amendment to the Constitution of the country recognized voting rights for blacks . However, the blacks did not receive land. With the withdrawal of federal troops from the southern states, power again passed to the planters. This was a betrayal by the bourgeoisie of the northern states of their black allies, and it meant the end of Reconstruction.

Despite the restoration of planter power, Reconstruction was important in the historical process of the United States. Her main result creating conditions for the development of capitalist relations in the south of the country, completing the process of creating a single national market. The years of Reconstruction were the descending stage of the second bourgeois-democratic revolution in the United States.

Lesson summary

There is a period in the history of the United States that they are trying to either forget about, or distort its events as much as possible to suit the current conjuncture. We are talking about the civil war in the United States, what preceded it, what caused it, and what chance was missed by America, and indeed the whole world, in 1861 - 1865.

Yankees poster

Residents of the United States are often disparagingly called “Yankees.” But it is worth noting that this so-called slang nickname applies only to white natives of the American North! In the South of the United States of America live representatives of another branch of the white American people, or even a separate nation. These are the so-called “Johnny” or “Dixie”, that is, southerners - descendants of the population of the independent state of the Confederate States of America.

If you now ask anyone who has the slightest understanding of the history of the United States between 1861 and 1865, you will hear a completely standard answer: a civil war was fought to abolish slavery. Moreover, this will be the answer not only in the countries of the former USSR, but also in most countries of the world. In general, everywhere except the American South itself, where they still remember the truth.

Background

The idea of ​​American independence was born in the South. The natives of the most populous southern state of Virginia were the ideologist of this very independence, Benjamin Franklin, and the author of the American Constitution, Thomas Jefferson. After the independence of the United States, it was the southerners - the johnnies - who formed the backbone of the American political, economic and cultural elite of the United States.

But by the 30s of the 19th century the situation began to change dramatically. The American southern states are located in a subtropical climate, where crops can be grown almost all year round, primarily cotton, tobacco and sugar cane, which were extremely profitable by then standards. Therefore, every inch of free land was put to use. The lack of free land in the South practically stopped the influx of emigrants and forced the population to intensify their own agricultural production. Advanced agricultural technology, production of agricultural machinery and fertilizers flourished in the South.

Poster “Johnny”

The South was also distinguished by its unique ethno-religious process. The basis of the johnnies were immigrants from England who had not broken ties with the traditional Anglican church; they were diluted by emigrants from France and Spain, bringing their customs and habits into the formation of the johnny mentality, which was characterized by openness, sincerity, morality, and hospitality. There were also negative traits, such as excessive arrogance and fatalism.

Despite the well-established cliché, the North was absolutely not an industrial region, but lived mainly from the same thing as the South, that is, from the sale of raw materials, primarily wood and furs. And since the forest does not grow like cotton, this forced the Yankee northerners to engage in extensive farming, capturing more and more new territories. In addition, the flow of emigrants to the North increased. There were weeks when 15 thousand seekers of happiness arrived in New York alone. Most of them had nothing but hope.

The bulk of the emigrants were Germans, Dutch and English, who were not only Anglicans, but also Lutherans, and even even belonged to extreme Protestant sects. The leitmotif of their beliefs was that wealth is a sign of divine grace, that Americans are God's chosen people, compared to which all others are nothing. As a result of the dominance of such a worldview, the image of a typical Yankee emerged - energetic, unprincipled, impudent, aimed primarily at personal enrichment and convinced of his absolute rightness, no matter what he did. It is clear that it was becoming increasingly difficult for two such types as Yankees and Johnnys to get along in the same country.

Notorious slavery

Slavery took place throughout the United States, not just the South. Simply, the lack of plantations in the North meant that there were few slaves there; they were used mainly as domestic servants, and the fact of slavery was not as obvious as in the South. Slavery was abolished in the North only at the end of 1865, after the end of the war and the death of Lincoln. True, laws were passed in the North according to which a slave from one state who found himself in the territory of another automatically became free. This is why slaves from the South often fled to the North.

Back in 1808, the slave trade in the United States was banned, slaves were no longer imported from Africa, they reproduced only naturally. This, in turn, sharply increased the prices of “black property”, which was, for example, more expensive than a horse. A slave was an expensive acquisition, which was not “spoilt” unless absolutely necessary. Therefore, the cruelty associated with the concept of “slavery” (shackles, whips, branding) for the American South was the exception rather than the rule. On small farms, slaves worked together with their owners; on large plantations, slaves were encouraged to work not so much by physical pressure, but by a system of incentives, including money.

In addition, in the South, a process that can be called “deraboladization” was in full swing; an increasing number of blacks received personal freedom from the hands of their masters, who also leased them land. In this way, the process of integration of the black population into the social structure of the South proceeded smoothly. Moreover, a free black man in the South received a significant part of the rights of a white man. He was a legal entity, could buy and sell property (including slaves), hold positions, and so on. It is no coincidence that when the war between the North and South broke out, about 40 thousand blacks volunteered for the army of the Southern Confederacy. Many of them became officers, all black soldiers received pay similar to what whites received.

The South was a slave-owning society, but it was not racist, while segregation flourished in the North. There was not a single black officer in the northern army; black soldiers served in separate units, and were paid less than their white colleagues.

Before the storm

The established bourgeoisie of the North had long been thinking about how to get their hands on the wealth of the South. But this did not work out while Johnny’s representatives were in power in the United States. Let us remember that in the United States there are no direct presidential elections. The head of state is chosen by the so-called electors, several representatives from each state based on the results of voting in the state. The Yankees came up with a multi-step combination, the essence of which was to first provoke a war with Mexico, which the Americans won brilliantly, taking 45% of its territory from Mexico, and began to carve out new states here, where streams of settlers rushed from the North, oversaturated with emigrants. Naturally, most of them voted for the Yankee presidential candidate. And as a state votes, so do its electors. Thus the number of Yankee electors increased, but the number of Johnny electors remained the same. These tactics led to the first Yankee president, Abraham Lincoln, coming to power in 1860. This did not bode well for Southerners, as Lincoln intended to raise taxes on them, prohibit the direct sale of cotton to foreign consumers, and impose a number of other economic sanctions. All this threatened a serious blow to the economy of the South. Therefore, the southern states, in accordance with the then constitution, began the process of secession (secession). Eleven states (South and North Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas and Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi) declared their secession from the United States, which announced the creation of a new sovereign state of the Confederate States of America (CSA).

At the beginning of 1861, this state acquired all the attributes of independence: a constitution, anthem, flag, and the President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, was elected. The CSA, as an independent state, was recognized by France, England, Spain and Mexico.

Storm

Johnny soldiers left units in the North and returned to the South. The Yankees were returning to the North. Everything was going on orderly and peacefully until the United States announced that Fort Moultrie, which stood on an island off the coast of South Carolina, was their territory. The southerners agreed, but suspended food supplies; after all, they are not obliged to feed foreigners! But the northerners did not deliver food either. The completely starved soldiers - 84 people - led by their commander Robert Anderson, suddenly attacked the coastal Fort Sumter and began to destroy food supplies. In order to prevent uninvited guests from getting supplies, the southerners shot at the warehouses with artillery guns and, in the form of an ultimatum, demanded that the Yankees leave. During the shelling of the warehouses, not a single Yankee was wounded, but leaving the fort, the northerners finally decided to solemnly lower their Stars and Stripes flag and staged a fireworks display on this occasion. One of the guns exploded and gunner Daniel Howe, who was standing nearby, was killed. This episode was presented to the population with the following sauce: “the rebels (in the sense of the southerners) attacked our (!!!) fort, the victims are innumerable.” In the wake of the indignation that gripped the North, Abraham Lincoln ordered his troops to commit an act of aggression against the independent state of the United States.

At the beginning of the campaign, in 1861-1863, the northerners were unlucky; the southerners bravely defended their sovereignty and defeated the occupying Yankee troops. It was then, in 1863, that Lincoln adopted the so-called “Emancipation Declaration,” which granted freedom to slaves living in the territory of the United States. In the North, as well as in the territories of the South occupied by northern troops, the previous position of slaves was preserved. With his decree, Lincoln pursued two goals: to sow chaos behind enemy lines, since slaves constituted the main labor force behind southern lines, and to justify aggression against the Confederacy to the world community by fighting slavery.

If the first task was partially solved, since many slaves learned about their liberation only after the end of the war, then the second goal was achieved 100%. In this war, all “advanced humanity” began to “root” for the northerners.

Results

In 1865, the North completely crushed the johnnys due to the inexhaustible human resources supplied by powerful emigration. By littering not only the battlefields, but also cities and towns with enemy corpses, the Yankees stopped the South's movement toward independence. The war for the ideals of northern capitalism cost the country 650 thousand lives. The losses are enormous, considering that the total population of the United States in 1861 was 31 million people, of which 5 million were black slaves. Entire states were burned and destroyed, as happened with the states of Georgia, the Carolinas and Louisiana during the raid on them by the Northern army led by General Sherman. It was the civil war between the North and the South that went down in history as the bloodiest war of the 19th century, surpassing even the Napoleonic wars in terms of annual loss of life.

Slaves, having received their freedom, were not integrated into society in any way, and many of them were on the verge of starvation. To survive, some of them went to large cities, becoming a cheap and powerless labor force. Others began to form gangs and terrorize the local white population, who, in response, began to gather at night into units of the “invisible empire” (Ku Klux Klan) for protection. The region, which had not known serious racial hostility before, was ablaze with clan crosses and robbed houses of white residents. Blacks didn't get rights, but white johnnys lost them. Until 1877, the South lived as an occupied territory: with an appointed administration and the local population without rights before it.

The vital foreign policy principles of the Yankees won. Having conquered the South, the United States more actively took on Latin America, and then the whole world. But if Johnny had won, perhaps on the territory of the modern United States there would have been two states, the USA (North) and the United States (South), each reminiscent of neighboring Canada or Australia, and for the residents of these countries the issue of fluctuations in the world price of cotton and grain than the number of army bases abroad and nuclear warheads in storage. And a militaristic nightmare called “George Bush” would be impossible in principle.

P.S. In 2000, in the states that were part of the CSA, a large organization, the “League of the South,” was created, with the goal of awakening the national self-awareness of the “Johnnies” and restoring the independence of the Confederacy.