Section #1 - Causal Factors
Causal Factors
This section is intended to help visitors understand the underlying Causes leading to the Civil War by seamlessly connecting them online to four key explanatory elements captured visually in the “wheel” below
Timeframes
This begins by breaking America’s history between 1607 and 1861 into seven discrete Timeframes, each marked by a dominant descriptor. See Timeframe Page
| Timeframe | Era |
|---|---|
| 1607-1775 | Colonial |
| 1776-1781 | Independence |
| 1781-1787 | New Government |
| 1787-1829 | Dual Economies |
| 1830-1835 | Great Awakening |
| 1835-1848 | Manifest Destiny |
| 1848-1861 | Broken Union |
Causal Factors
It then identifies 15 individual Causes that led to the war.
| Themes | How does this contribute to causing the war? |
|---|---|
| 1. Sectional Economics | The South’s commitment to agriculture clashes with the North’s wish for industrialization. |
| 2. States’ Rights | The North’s call for a strong central government conflicts with the South’s belief in state sovereignty. |
| 3. Racism | Anti-black racism in the North underlies the demand to ban slavery in the west. |
| 4. Slavery Expansion | The ban on slavery jeopardizes future Southern wealth from cotton sales and lucrative slave auctions. |
| 5. Second Awakening | Religious revivals in the North create reform missions, including an end to slavery. |
| 6. Abolition | Abolition threatens Southern wealth in slaves. |
| 7. Black Experience | Southern slavery is threatened by Black uprisings and the rise of articulate spokesmen and women. |
| 8. Nullification | The South’s tariff nullification tactics set the stage for secession from its contract with the Union. |
| 9. Manifest Destiny | The drive to acquire more land reopens the North-South division over slavery. |
| 10. Territorial Constitutions | The battle over Free vs. Slave State designations in the western territories fuels North-South antagonism. |
| 11. Legal Verdicts | Landmark decisions go for and against the South’s efforts to sustain slavery. |
| 12. Public Violence | Attacks on abolitionists and warfare in Kansas turn verbal disputes into murderous engagements. |
| 13. Voting Power | The South loses crucial voting power in the House when its population growth lags the North. |
| 14. Political Upheaval | The rise of the Free Soil and Republican parties are an existential threat to slavery in the west. |
| 15. Lincoln | Lincoln’s election and his subsequent decisions make war against the South inevitable. |