preview

Civil War Dbq Analysis

Decent Essays

Since the establishment of the New England and Chesapeake / Lower South colonies, there had been significant differences between these regions such as overall wealth, economic structure and industrialization, ideal government, and usage of slavery. Leading up until the Civil War, the North had grown into a semi-industrialized, diverse economy with practically no slaves, and the South had remained agrarian with a complete economic dependency on slavery. Although South Carolina’s declared secession when it left the Union, and Lincoln fought the Civil War on a platform of keeping the Union together, the reasons for war and circumstances that led to this boiled down to one issue: slavery. The war was ultimately caused by conflicts regarding several …show more content…

The purpose of Polk’s declaration was to gain the California territory from Mexico and complete his 4 goals (goals like settling the dispute over the oregon territory were already accomplished). This is significant, because the issue regarding taking in California as a state caused extreme tensions within the country. The Compromise of 1850 initially decreased tensions after it was passed but eventually Northern States, offended by being told to comply with the fugitive slave act--thereby strengthening an institution they hoped wouldn’t grow any more--established Personal Liberty Laws which purpose was to undermine the Fugitive Slave Act and were ultimately succesful and created more tensions. Document 1 also shows a precipitating factor to the issue of the civil war, because it involves the annexation of Texas. The context of the annexation was that Americans were allowed residence in the Mexican Texas which forbade slavery, but Americans ignored this. After De Santa Anna attacked the Alamo, Texas became independent and requested admission to the Union which was controversial at the time, because a letter written by the president had been leaked that directly linked annexation of Texas to strenghtening slavery. Eventually Texas was annexed by the US and in doing so grew the South and expanded slavery a

Get Access