The Great American Conflict of Interests

A detailed Summary of The Great American Conflict of Interests

The Great American Conflict of Interests

What developed into the civil war between the North and South originated from geological differences, which led to economic and then moral conflicts of interest. The way in which colonists adapted to their surroundings in the early years of the European settlement of America directly affected the way in which their economies would work, the way their people would live and the moral standards by which they would live by. The War Between the States did not just suddenly occur but rather it took nearly two centuries of developmental differences to finally set it off.

When the Europeans began to settle the South in the mid 1600’s they took notice of how different the land was from the land in the North. The South was an ideal environment for growing crops. Certain colonies primarily grew one type of plant called a cash crop. Thousands of acres of land spread across the continent full of untapped natural resources. Colonies such as Virginia and Maryland “had found a cash crop in tobacco” (Americans 38). While South Carolina had grown indigo and rice as their staple crops, the people of North Carolina, used the “principal exports of wood and wood by-products fr

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he first choice among plantation owners as the best way to staff the farm and save money. In exchange for usually seven years of labor, a plantation owner would pay the way for an immigrant from a foreign land to America. This is the practice that led to slavery in America. Realizing that it would be even cheaper to just buy slaves for life instead of having to take care of indentured servants for seven years, many wealthy white men began to take on Africans as a source of labor. So in fact it was actually “a single cash crop, large farms, cheap and plentiful labor and a mild climate” (Americans 49) that created the very different economical conditions that gave birth to the conflict between the North and the South. The geological conditions were just the beginning of the differences that led to the Civil War.

350). The president could not do anything until March when he was inaugurated but he wrote to himself, “he would not agree to any compromise in regard to the extension of slavery” (Americans 351). Lincoln took office March 4, 1861 and seven states had already separated from the Union. It got worse though, “by May 20, four more states had left the Union and another four looked as if they might secede, too” (Americans 358). The newly formed Confederacy of seceded states began capturing and taking over Union forts in the South. Soon only two forts remained, and one was Fort Sumter. On April 12, 1861 the Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard gave the order for an attack on Fort Sumter and thus started the Civil War. The opinions of the North conflicted with the beliefs of the South and it

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Approximate Word count = 1164
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History