ipl-logo

Civil War Economy Analysis

1027 Words5 Pages

Throughout history one thing has always played a role in starting conflicts, and in a sense is one of the base things that drives us: Needs. The thing with needs is that there is a limited amount of solutions to those needs. This is the base principle of economics, and similarly to this concept of needs, the Civil War had many economic implications.More specifically the economic differences between the North and the South caused the Civil War. The biggest factor that contributed to this was the Confederacies one-commodity system. Without economic diversity in the South, the North’s relatively diverse economy pressured the south heavily. The North’s agriculture was more focused on sustainable crops and overall was much more productive in comparison …show more content…

After the invention of the cotton gin, only then was cotton a profitable resource to work with. Before this indigo and sugar were some of the top exports. Most of these accounted for a large part of the South’s economic productiveness. If the world economy decided to not need cotton anymore, the South would crumble. Most large leaders in the North and South saw this distinction, and it was heavily credited as the leading factor of the Civil War. Raw cotton even after it became ‘profitable’ to sell was highly dependent on external forces, which meant that growing it was risky because it was a highly nutrient demanding crop. This meant that after using a field a few times for cotton production that you would have to move on, or grow something much less profitable. Only the top portion of the farmers in the South could afford to sustainably, and profitably produce cotton in large amounts. Most farmers in the South had much smaller farms, and more often than not would go into debt. This relative economic instability when compared to the North was the leading cause of the Civil …show more content…

As mentioned earlier Britain imported 75% of it’s raw cotton from the Confederacy. Many leaders at the time, in the North and the South, thought that Britain would come to their economic partners aid if someone attacked them. This meant that Southern leaders like Jefferson Davis were much more confident in starting a war. When the war started however Britain did not come to the aid of their economic partner, and instead let the prices of cotton and cotton textiles skyrocket. This mislead trust and reliance on a hunch seemed like an extremely important asset for the South before and during the war, but ultimately this lead to the start of an unbalanced Civil War with false hope supporting the

Show More
Related

  • St. Louis Circuit Court Case Of Lucy Ann Berry Mitchell

    1000 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the five years between 1803 and 1808, South Carolina alone imported 400,000 slaves (Jones, 2004). These were so many slaves that pushed slavery to other regions like Louisiana and Georgia. The Northern States were reluctant in fighting slave trade as they were more concerned about the new government and feared to be in conflicts with the south. Most of the states thought that slavery was a passing cloud and that it was bound to fail sooner. The invention of the cotton gin made the cash crop all the more lucrative.

    Read More

  • The Cotton Diplomacy: Success Or Failure?

    265 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Cotton Diplomacy failed because of three things. The South not knowing the risks of what could happen. Bad decisions made by the South that made most of the Confederacy starve. Also not thinking that France and England could go to other countries to get cotton.

    Read More

  • How Did The Cotton Gin Affect The Economy

    706 Words  | 3 Pages

    At the turn of the 19th century America was growing both in geographical size and in the economic sector. In the South this economic expansion was created by a new “cash crop” called cotton. The southern United States had the perfect environment to grow cotton, and plenty of land

    Read More

  • Discuss The Causes Of The Civil War Dbq

    661 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first main cause of the Civil War was economic differences between the Northern and Southern states. During the first few decades of the 19th century, the North had an industrial revolution that brought an economy that relied on laborers. While at the same time, the South continued to rely on slaves for their farming and the production of cotton. The Northerners did not need slaves for their economy, but the Southerners could not make any profit without cotton or slaves. In the 1860’s, the North had twice as many railroads as the South, and the South had a bigger cotton production because of their slave population (Document A).

    Read More

  • How Did The Environment Affect The Development Of The Northern And Southern Colonies

    738 Words  | 3 Pages

    The South became a crop-based society that depended on the cheap labor of slaves. The North became a manufacturing and trading society that had saw slaves as helpful, but not absolutely crucial. Further into the future, this difference would drastically affect the Americas, through racial tension and ethical dilemmas. It would become a huge part of the civil war’s cause, a war that irrefutably shaped today’s world. All of these implications arose simply from the fact that the Northern colonies adapted to their environment in a way that did not require workers whereas the South adapted differently, demanding slave

    Read More

  • Similarities And Differences Between The Economies Of The North And The South

    580 Words  | 3 Pages

    The North and the South had different economies due to the region that they were in. The ways that they worked were also different because of the terrain and the supplies/resources that were found in the area. In the North, the work was mostly based on manufacturing and factory work. Since the South is closer to the equator, farming was ideal in the South. They also required slavery in the South for plantations.

    Read More

  • What Was The Impact Of Slavery On The Old South

    766 Words  | 4 Pages

    No matter your stance at the time, one thing became clear: socially, politically and economically, slavery was the fabric of American success and gave birth to the Old South as we know it today. At the center of the entire institution of slavery, and central to its defense, was the economic domination it provided a young country in international markets. In the early 19th century, cotton was a popular commodity and overtook sugar as the main crop produced by slave labor. The production of cotton became the nation’s top priority; America supplied ¾ of the cotton supply to the entire world.

    Read More

  • Civil War Economic Causes

    837 Words  | 4 Pages

    The South was able to produce 7/8 of the worlds cotton supply. The South became more dependent on the planted field system and it’s full of force part, slavery. Notably, at that moment, the North was flourishing industrially. The North depended on factories and others

    Read More

  • Dbq Essay Civil War

    533 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Civil War is characterized as the bloodiest war in American History. From 1861 to 1865, the North and South fought over several of disagreements and encounters. The Civil War caused hundreds and thousands of men to lose their life, about 620,000 soldiers had died. The Civil War was fought in Pennsylvania, Texas, New Mexico, and Florida. Civil War began because the North wanted to abolish slavery, the South seceded from the Union, and the North overpowered the South.

    Read More

  • Essay On What Caused The Civil War Dbq

    484 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nick Baxter What caused the Civil War? DBQ The Civil War was caused by three main reasons are economic differences, interpretation of Constitution, and moral beliefs. The North and the South were very different economically.

    Read More

  • What Caused The Civil War Essay

    574 Words  | 3 Pages

    One of the several factors that helped cause the Civil War was the economy at the time. While the economy wasn’t in bad shape, the North and South were different and had very different views and ideas about their futures. The Northern area couldn 't have huge farms like the South. However, they were very diverse in the items they wanted to produce.

    Read More

  • Industrial Workers In The Gilded Age

    1038 Words  | 5 Pages

    After the Civil War many problems arose. For farmers- shipping rates, freight rates, silo prices, and interest rates all skyrocketed. Many businessmen, such as middlemen, would try to take advantage of the farmers needs to mooch more money off of them. All of these issues caused the Farmer’s Alliance to form. The farmers that were participating in the alliance were being directly affected by the rise in rates and prices.

    Read More

  • Why The South Lost The Civil War Essay

    909 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Civil War was a monumental bloodshed, which was fought between the United States of America and the Confederate States, from 1861 to 1865. The primary cause of the war was the Southern states' desire to preserve the institution of slavery, which did not please the beliefs of the North. At the beginning of the Civil War, twenty-two million people lived in the North and 9 million people, which included four million of whom were slaves, lived in the South. The North, led by President Abraham Lincoln and his trusted generals, had more money, more factories, more horses, more railroads, and more food than the south. These advantages made the United States much more powerful than the Confederate States, which ultimately led to Northern victory.

    Read More

  • Did Slavery Cause The Civil War Essay

    604 Words  | 3 Pages

    To a greater extent, slavery was the greatest cause of the outbreak of the civil war in 1860. Disputes of slavery caused economic and political troubles between the northern and southern states leading up to the civil war. The fact the the northern and southern states were different in almost every way caused them to turn out like completely different territories, one of their greatest differences was the fact that most southern states economy relied on hard labour, agricultural jobs like tobacco in Maryland, and cotton in Virginia; this caused their economy to be more based on the labour of slaves than the more developed territories in the north (Harrold), who after this time was starting to not need the slave labour in their territories because after early 1800’s, the industrial revolution had been spreading to America, and the country developed very quickly. But in this expansion, only the north states were getting the effect of the industrial revolution, meaning the north would not need slave

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of The American Civil War

    1422 Words  | 6 Pages

    The demonstrations of division in America coexisted many: utopian societies, clashes over public space, backlash alongside immigrants, urban rebellions, black demonstration, and Indian oppositions. America was a separated land in need of change with the South in the biggest demand. The South trusted heavily on agriculture, equally opposed to the North, which was vastly populated and an industrialized union. The South produced cotton, which remained its main cash crop and countless Southerners knew that hefty reliance on slave labor would damage the South ultimately, but their forewarnings were not regarded. The South was constructed on a totalitarian system.

    Read More

More about Civil War Economy Analysis

Open Document