The American Civil War: Causes and Effects

Although many believed the American Civil War was fought to end slavery, that wasn't the real reason, at least not at the beginning. Instead, it was fought for an even greater reason: to preserve the Union. But before getting into the actual Civil War, a few issues have to be revised. First and foremost there are the reasons for why it came to be, what exactly fueled it, and what precisely set the whole thing …

…Sadly to say, the horrific part of the Civil war was that over 620,000 Americans died in it. The beneficial part however, was that the Emancipation Proclamation, and later the Thirteenth Amendment, freed all slaves. Now a period of "Reconstruction" in the South followed. Ironically, a mixture of southern pride, willfulness, and political events succeeded in paving the way to the elimination of slavery. After four long, bloody years, the American Civil War was finally over.