American Civil War: American Civil War.

From April 186 1 to April 1865, the war between the south and the north of the United States was also called the American civil war. The bourgeoisie led the Northern War, and the fighting forces were workers, peasants and blacks. In the south, only plantation slave owners insisted on the war. The purpose of their war was to expand slavery to the whole country, while the purpose of the North was to defeat the South and restore national unity.

[Edit this paragraph] background

(1) American territorial expansion:

Means: redemption, armed subversion or invasion.

Results:/kloc-In the middle of the 9th century, American territory expanded from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast, forming a famous "westward movement" in American history.

(3) Impact: bring disaster to indigenous Indians; The development of the western region objectively promoted the development of the American economy; The contradiction between the two economic situations in the United States has also deepened.

(2) The contradiction between the two economic situations in the United States:

(1) The industrial and commercial capitalists in the north demanded to protect domestic raw materials and markets, expand the export of industrial products, raise tariffs and restrict the import of industrial products; I hope to abolish slavery, increase the free labor force and establish a free state in the west.

(2) Southern slave owners sold cotton and other raw materials to Britain in large quantities, imported a large number of industrial products from Britain, and advocated reducing tariffs, expanding imports, expanding the number of slaves and expanding slavery in the west.

(3) The focus of the contradiction lies in the abolition of slavery.

(3) The upsurge of the abolitionist movement:/kloc-In the first half of the 9th century, the abolitionist movement continued to rise. Abolitionists actively called for the abolition of slavery and actively put it into action. The contradiction between north and south is becoming increasingly acute.

(4) The fuse of civil war: 1860, Lincoln, the American Republican candidate who represented the interests of the northern bourgeoisie and advocated limiting slavery, was elected president.

After [editing this paragraph]

(1) The outbreak and initial situation of the civil war;

(1)1861year, some southern States established the confederacy, and then started the war.

At the beginning of the war, the northern army was losing ground.

(2) the turning point of the war:

(1) in order to reverse the war, Lincoln government promulgated the homestead act and the emancipation proclamation.

(2)1863, the battle of Gettysburg, the northern army won, began to grasp the initiative in the war.

(3) End of the war: 1865, the Confederate army surrendered and the civil war ended.

[Edit this paragraph] Impact

The American Civil War was the second bourgeois revolution in American history. It maintained national unity, abolished slavery, further removed obstacles to the development of capitalism, and paved the way for the take-off of American capitalist economy.

[Edit this paragraph] The causes of the civil war

The root cause of the civil war is that 300,000 slave owners in the south expanded slavery in the new immigrant areas, which threatened the existence and development of the free state and infringed on the interests of the vast majority of people in the Federation, including southern freemen. The purpose of the war waged by the southern States was not to withdraw from the Union, but to compete for land with the northern States in the border States and other uncultivated areas, and to extend slavery to the whole North American continent. The survival and development of slave owners in the south drove the southern States to go to war with the north. The northern States have no choice but to fight.

However, new historians believe that the civil war was not caused by slavery, but by different ideological and cultural backgrounds, which led to different values. The deep-seated reason for the outbreak of war is the unity and division of the country. Lincoln believes that the existence or abolition of slavery is not important in the face of national division, and the reason for national division is that apart from the ideological and cultural background, the north and the south are two different market environments and different economic systems.

However, judging the nature of a historical event requires us not to rely on the opinions and subjective wishes of the parties, nor to focus only on the event itself, but to reveal the objective contradictory movement that caused the event. There are two tendencies when analyzing the causes of the civil war in North America. There is a tendency to think that it is unconstitutional for the north to disagree with the independence of the southern States. Another view is that Lincoln was forced to liberate slaves. Then the civil war should not be considered as a question of abolishing slavery.

The first idea obviously ignores that slave owners in the south will not aim at independence. The inherent requirements of slavery forced the south to compete for more land. This policy is bound to conflict with the interests of free peasants and the bourgeoisie. When the conflict cannot be resolved through parliamentary and political negotiations within the Federation, it must be resolved in the form of civil war that leads to the collapse of the Federation. Social and political struggle is a reflection of the struggle in the economic field and has nothing to do with ethics. We must correctly explore the roots of the American Civil War from the contradiction of social production, but many people still explore the causes of this war from the aspects of laws, customs, national characteristics, ethics and morality, and can't see the essence of the Civil War.

Another view that the subjective desire of one party is the objective cause of the incident is also untenable. Explaining the characteristics of an era with the ideology of an era is not as wise as a small shopkeeper. Because the latter can also distinguish between human behavior and words, while the former equates human language with human behavior. We believe that Lincoln's words are sincere, but he was forced to liberate the slaves. However, in the face of historical inevitability, individual's subjective desire cannot be the fundamental driving force of social progress.

1. Is the purpose of the Civil War to maintain the Union?

The south is the party that started the war. Before the war began, the north observed it for several months. At the same time, separatists in the south have been robbing federal fortresses, arms, docks, customs, ships and weapons, destroying national flags and detaining troops. Finally, it was the South that fired the first shot of the American Civil War in carl sandburg. After receiving the news from Sandberg, Southern Defense Minister Walker said publicly: No one knows where the war that started here will end. He also predicted that the Confederate flag would fly on Capitol Hill in Washington in May.

The internal causes of the North American Civil War have actually been answered by the war slogans of the South. Their aim is to establish a slave union.

Let's review the history of the expansion of slavery by southern slave owners in the United States. The Continental Congress in 1787 and the Constitutional Convention in 1789 stipulated the permanent boundaries of slave-holding areas. 1820 Missouri agreement turned Missouri into a slave-holding state and expanded the scope of slave-holding areas. 1854, kansas-nebraska act once again expanded the scope of slave-holding areas. Slavery no longer has fixed boundaries. Any state where most people agree with slavery can become a slave-holding state. Under the influence of this bill and the southern slave owners, New Mexico became a slave-holding state. Although the southern slave owners shipped less than 50 slaves to New Mexico!

In foreign policy, as in internal affairs, the federal government headed by Buchanan became the tool of southern slave owners. His government not only gave a green light to the expansion of slavery in new immigrant areas at home, but also actively seized more land for slave owners overseas. His enemy's manifesto openly made the seizure of Cuba (including the use of force) a national goal. With the support of his government, northern Mexico has been divided, and the adventurous conquest of Central American countries has been going on. The Federation became the tool of 300,000 southern slave owners.

Second, the impact of competition on Kansas.

On the Kansas issue, the compromise between the northern people and the southern slave owners reached a turning point. As soon as kansas-nebraska act passed, the southern slave owners' advance troops entered Kansas, trying to expel the local new immigrants by force. The federal government in Buchanan supported their action. But the people in the north will not sit idly by this time. They also set up armed rescue organizations to defend the interests of new immigrants. The Republican Party was born from this organization. When the slave owners saw that the armed action failed, they turned to the federal government for help. This time, the struggle was mainly carried out in the House of Representatives. In this struggle, the Democratic Party split internally and became a supporter of the North and the South. Douglas, the founder of kansas-nebraska act, also joined the camp against the South. Because the behavior of slave owners in southern Kansas trampled on the sovereignty principle of the people in the new immigrant area.

The Republican platform is that the new immigrant areas will no longer provide an inch of land for slavery. Slavery can only exist in the southern States where it first existed. This platform is impossible for slave owners in the south to agree anyway. Because slavery in the south can't exist only in the south. Its inherent logic stipulates that it must expand to new immigrant areas.

Third, why did the southern slave owners introduce slavery into the new colonial areas?

Land is the core issue of slavery economy. Slavery in the United States is doomed to extinction if it is confined to its original place of residence.

Slavery economy is different from free small peasant economy. Slavery economy, which relies on simple and cheap labor, can only be profitable if it is built on a large fertile land. Modern agriculture based on intensive cultivation relies more on capital, labor, intelligence and energy input and less on the natural fertility of land, which is incompatible with slavery.

With the development of social economy, some states that used to use slave labor gradually became states that reserved slaves for the south, such as Maryland and Virginia. The long-term slavery economy also exhausted the fertility of some southern States, and they had to start raising and selling slaves, such as South Carolina. As a result, some slave owners urgently need large areas of uncultivated land, while others have to make a fortune through the slave trade. This is the fundamental reason why southern slave owners need to establish slavery on a wider land.

Politically, the trend of citizen population in slave-holding States is less and less than that in free States, and slave owners in the south rely more on the Senate to control the Federation. Because in the Senate, regardless of the population, each state has two representatives. In order to expand the influence of slavery in the Federation, it is a powerful means to turn the newly joined States into slave-holding States.

In slave-holding states, less than 300,000 slave owners faced millions of poor white freemen. The threat of these freemen to the property of slave owners is self-evident. Only through overseas adventures and land competition within the North American continent can these freemen be guided to have a desire for new land and a dream of becoming slave owners. One day, slave owners in the south can transfer the dangerous energy around them to other harmless places.

Therefore, slavery is the root of the civil war in North America. The attempt of southern slave owners to expand slavery in the New World broke the balance of power within the Federation. The purpose of the southern States is not to break away from the old union, but to establish another slave union in the new world.

In the following, it will continue to point out that the essence of the civil war is not that the southern States want to leave the union, but that the south and the north compete for the border States. What the south wants in the war is not independence, but the land of the border States. The vast majority of the population in these border States are freemen. Some states have joined the Union. These states include Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri and Arkansas.

Four. The situation in border states and slave states.

The lowlands along the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi Plain are separated by huge mountains, which is the birthplace of slavery in the United States. The mountainous areas inserted into the two plains are rich in coal, salt, limestone, metal ores and gold, which are suitable for the development of various industries and are free areas. Slavery has no roots here. In the border States, freemen living in these highlands constitute the majority of the population in the border States. The following is the situation of the border States and slave-holding States.

Delaville: Actually, he is a member of the Federation. The overwhelming majority of people are against slavery. There are only 1798 slaves in this state. The south declared its territorial claim to Delaware.

Maryland: There are 87 188 slaves in the population of 687034. The vast majority of people are on the side of the Federation. But slave owners held important positions. This is because a few slave owners ensured their political privileges through the inheritance of traditional power, political deception and highly accumulated wealth.

Virginia: the main headquarters of the northern and southern armies. There are 15000 slaves and 20 times as many freemen in the northwest highlands of the state. There are 500,000 slaves in the eastern lowlands. The slave trade to the southern States is the main source of income in this area. After the political leaders in the eastern region decided to leave the union by manipulating the state legislature and opened the door for the southern army, northwest Virginia immediately left Virginia and joined the union.

Tennessee: There are only 300,000 slaves among more than one million residents. The southern part of the state has been under martial law. 186 1 In the winter of, slave owners suggested holding a referendum on secession. The overwhelming majority of people oppose the referendum in order not to provide an excuse for separatists. Even under the rule of the southern army, 65,438+0/3 people still supported the Federation in the referendum. The eastern mountains of Tennessee are the center of resistance to southern rule. The south had to use the army to control East Tennessee. Similar situations exist in northern Alabama, northwestern Georgia and northern North Carolina.

Missouri: There are about 100,000 slaves in a population of more than one million. In the referendum of 186 1, the people of our state decided not to quit the union. As the governor, Jackson openly violated the people's wishes and led the armed forces to attack Missouri from Texas, Arkansas and Tennessee in an attempt to force the state to secede from the union by force.

New Mexico: It wasn't a state then. In the era of President Buchanan, in order to send a slavery constitution to the state, the south sent 25 slaves to the state. The region supports the Federation. Southern states then sent armed adventurers from Texas to New Mexico. People in this area have sought protection from the federal government.

South Carolina, Mississippi and Alabama are the souls of the separatist movement. South Carolina, Mississippi and Alabama have large slave populations.

Kentucky is special. There are more than 200,000 slaves in a population of more than one million. Three plebiscites in the state supported the federal government. But the state's senior officials were ardent supporters of slavery. When the Confederacy was busy putting out the rebellion in East Tennessee, as a compromise, the Confederacy recognized the neutrality of the state. But soon, Confederate troops attacked "neutral" Kentucky. The people of Kentucky just woke up from the dream of neutrality. The legislative Committee publicly declared its support for the Federation. Volunteers from Illinois, Indiana and Ohio also rushed to Kentucky to help the people of Kentucky expel the southern armed forces.

The Confederacy's attempt to merge Missouri and Kentucky revealed that the excuse of "fighting for the right to leave the Union" was just an empty slogan. Confederacy only recognizes the people's right to leave the Federation, but does not recognize the people's right to stay in the Federation.

Five, the abolition of slavery is imperative.

Since slavery has become an obstacle to the continued existence of the Federation, why not simply abolish slavery? In some border States, there are also some slave owners who are loyal to the Federation. In order to win over this group of people, Lincoln repeatedly declared that he would not abolish slavery. However, the struggle in border States has turned from diplomacy and parliament to war. The logic of war will force the federal government to win the widest support and fight the weakest link in the south, namely slavery.

[Edit this paragraph] The first stage

1860, Republican Lincoln was elected president, and the American Democratic Party suffered a crushing defeat, which became a signal that the southern slave owners left the union and launched a rebellion. South Carolina, the southern slave-holding state, was the first to secede from the Union, followed by Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. 186 1 February, 2000, announced the establishment of the "Southern Alliance" and set up another government with Jefferson Davis as president. 1861April 12, the rebels began shelling the federal fort Sumter in South Carolina, and it was captured on June 14. On April 15, Lincoln government issued a crusade order, and the civil war broke out. Soon, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas seceded from the Union and joined the Confederacy.

At the beginning of the war, the strength of the north greatly surpassed that of the south, with a population of 22.34 million and a population of 965.438 million+in the south, of which more than 3.8 million were slaves. The industry in the north is developed, the railway network extends in all directions, and food is abundant. There is almost no industry and few railways in the south. But the south is well prepared militarily, and its troops are well equipped and well trained. Most outstanding generals who graduated from West Point Military Academy, including Lester Lee, Si Tong Wall Jackson, invincible soldier Johnston, little beauty Liu Sa and Stevenson, all went to the south. In addition, on the eve of the civil war, President Buchanan tried to transport a lot of weapons and money to the south. At the beginning of the Civil War, the Lincoln administration launched the war to restore the reunification of the North and the South, fearing that touching slavery would push some border slave-holding states to the rebel side in the south, thus losing the important strategic area of border states. Because the northern government refused to declare the liberation of slaves. Therefore, in the first stage of the civil war, the north suffered military defeat one after another. In the summer peninsula battles of 186 1 in Manakas and 1862 in July, the northern army suffered heavy losses. Although the northern army achieved a series of brilliant achievements in the western front and seized several important strategic strongholds from the southern army, these achievements were offset by the fiasco in the eastern front.

In the case of many military failures in the north, radicals within the Republican Party and abolitionists in society put forward the idea of liberating slaves and arming blacks. Lincoln also realized the necessity of liberating slaves.

[Edit this paragraph] Phase II

1On September 22nd, 862, Lincoln released the preliminary "Emancipation of Black Slaves". It was announced that if the southern rebels did not lay down their arms before 1863 65438+ 10 1, the slaves in the rebel states would be free from that day on. After the news reached the south, thousands of slaves fled to the north. The British working class also launched a movement to support the North, forcing the British government to give up its original intervention plan.

Lincoln administration also carried out a series of revolutionary measures and policies: 1862 ~ 1863 carried out the policy of arming blacks. Therefore, thousands of blacks signed up to join the northern army, mainly runaway slaves in the south; 1The Homestead Law promulgated in May 862 stipulates that all adults loyal to the Federation can acquire 64.74 hectares of land in the west by paying the registration fee of 10, and they can become the owners of this land after five years of cultivation. The Lincoln administration severely suppressed counter-revolutionaries and purged agents in the south-central part of the army. 1863 implemented the conscription law to replace the conscription system, thus strengthening the troops in the north. At the same time, Lincoln adjusted the leadership of the army, unified command, and appointed U.S. Grant as the commander-in-chief of the whole army.

1863, the north turned for the better militarily. In July of the same year 1, Gettysburg won a great victory, annihilating 28,000 Yugoslav troops and becoming a turning point in the civil war. The initiative on the battlefield was transferred to the Union Army. 1864, the supreme commander of the north adopted a new strategic policy: launching a powerful offensive on the east and west lines at the same time. On the eastern front, the main goal is to consume the enemy's strength; The western front went deep into the enemy's hinterland with strong forces, cutting off the links between the northeast and southwest of SAARC. 1864 In September, the northern army led by General W.T. Sherman captured Atlanta in one fell swoop, and two months later began the famous "March to the sea", which completely destroyed the enemy's various military facilities and paralyzed the southern economy. On the eastern front, General Grant led the northern army to drive the enemy to Richmond, the capital of the rebel army. At the beginning of 1865, slaves fled one after another and the plantation economy was on the verge of collapse. The sea blockade imposed by the northern navy almost cut off the trade between the south and Europe. At the same time, there were opposition voices in the south, and many small farmers joined the Federalist and engaged in anti-war activities. There are more and more deserters in the south. Food and daily necessities are scarce. On April 9, 1865, R.E. Lee's troops were trapped in the encirclement of the North Army and were forced to surrender to Grant. The American Civil War ended. The United States is reunified.

[Edit this paragraph] The significance of the civil war

During the civil war, the two sides spent $654.38+0.5 billion in war expenses. The North Army suffered 630,000 casualties and the South Army suffered 480,000 casualties. The war showed the power of modern industry, and both sides were equipped with a large number of new-type line-bore weapons, which promoted the application and development of scattered formation, field fortifications and infantry close-pressure operations. Railways and telegrams played an important role, and armored ships, mines, mines and submarines were used for the first time in the history of war.

The victory of the North in the war established the dominant position of the big bourgeoisie in the whole country. The civil war eliminated slavery, thus clearing the way for the rapid development of American capitalism. The implementation of the Homestead Law has accelerated the development of the western region and promoted the victory of the American-style road to the development of agricultural capitalism. Thus, at the end of 19, the United States became the most advanced industrial and agricultural capitalist country in the world. In the reconstruction period after the civil war, blacks were still discriminated against in many aspects and exploited by plantation owners, but they gained civil rights and voting rights politically and were liberated from slavery. Therefore, the American Civil War is of epoch-making significance in the development of American history. The Civil War was the second bourgeois revolution in American history. Although the number of casualties exceeded 600 thousand, it solved the land problem of citizens and developed the wasteland in the west. Most of the developed land in the west has become an industrial center, which has safeguarded national unity, cleared the way for the accelerated development of American capitalism and laid the foundation for the United States to rank among the world powers.

Limitations: Lincoln abolished slavery only in the southern rebel States. Although these blacks have been liberated, they have not obtained the same rights as whites, and the black problem still exists.

Link extension: margaret mitchell's famous novel Gone with the Wind and its adaptation film Gone with the Wind are set in the American Civil War.

Most of the stories of cowboy in the West are set in the American Civil War. For example, the two protagonists in "The Golden Escort" blew up a bridge on the battlefield and stopped the war between the North and the South.