What is one cause of the US Civil War?

Answer 1

State Rights, slavery was a factor that pushed the country to war.

Actually, States' Rights was not a factor in the Civil War. That's a latter-day retroactive justification by certain Southern apologists.

Slavery is indeed the primary cause of the Civil War, though not the Root Cause. The Root cause is a change (or lack thereof) in the societies of the North and South, starting about 1820. That is, the Root cause is Economics.

The South wished to retain its large-scale agrarian economy, with a culture heavily based on the the English aristocratic system. The North, however, was rapidly transitioning from a small scale manufacturing and farming economy to one based on large-scale manufacturing and trade. Its society was in the transition to one where wealth and education defined social status.

The increased wealth and population (due heavily to Immigration and higher birth rates) of the North changed the balance of power in the US Federal Government to one which the South could see would shortly reduce Southern influence to a small minority opinion.

Economics in play dictated that slavery was of very little use in the North, while crucial to the South. Thus, when the abolitionist movement came about, it was from Northern intellectual and religious factors. The increasing likelihood that the abolitionist movement would gain complete sway over the Northern political landscape, and thus, quickly dominate the US Federal Government, was the fear of the South.

That is why the South chose to make slavery the prime issue - it was a defining characteristic of the South, and to change it, meant that the South would have to radically remake its society and economics, which was anathema to the existing power elites of the South. In essence, the South chose to fight rather than change.
There were quite a few contributers to the Civil War. The top two are States Rights and Slavery.

States rights- The south thought that the government had too much power and that the states should have more power and rights. While the North liked a strong federal government.

Slavery- The South liked slavery because they were more agricultural based and the north was more factories and industries. The south thought if they abolished slavery it would ruin the souths economy.

Other reasons include Sectionalism, Taxes and Tariffs, and the election of President Lincoln.

Answer 2

Slavery was a huge cause of the war. There were also economic differences between the North and South. The North was becoming more industrialized and was collecting tariffs from goods sold in the South.

Answer 3

For over a hundred years or more the South was an agricultural based economy and a society to match it. Whether one was a large plantation owner or a small farmer, they were born into a "farmland" society whose large plantations were driven by slave labor. There came a point, slowly. that there became a distinct difference between a Southerners way of thinking and a Northern way.In the North, its manufacturing base produced "workers" and businessmen types. Also, a large immigrant base. The North was more diversified in the Demographics of their populations. Clearly there was a difference there but not enough to bring about a war.

In fact, US President Lincoln came into office with a Northern population agreeing on only one item. That was that slavery should not spread into the western territories. When the South seceded, this issue disappeared from the minds of many Northern people. Long before Abraham Lincoln sought a position in national politics, he was confident that at one point or another, slavery would simply die out.

Economically, this would have proved to become true. Other forces interfered with this logical process.

Answer 4

There were numerous causes that contributed to the US Civil War. One has its history based on the use of slavery during the American colonial period. In the time period closer to the US Civil War itself, one commanding reason the armed conflict came about was the failure of each side to reach a compromise agreement over disputed issues, slavery being one important issue.