The Civil War- 1861-1865It was caused by the fact that there existed 2 antagonistic economic & social systems in the US. The capitalist system in the North & the slave system in the South. Slavery may be looked upon as a specific form of American feudalism. For capitalism to develop freely & to expand rapidly it was necessary to abolish slavery. Disputes between the North & the South arose with the territorial expansion of the US to the West. The Northerners wanted all the new territories to be free while the Southerners wanted to introduce slavery into them. These disputes became especially acute (острые) after the Mexican war when the US equired huge territories from Mexico. In 1854 the the northerners founded a new political party- the Republican Party. It united all anti-slavory & progressive forces in the North. In 1860 the Republican Party candidate Abraham Lincoln was elected president. He believed that slavery could continue in the territories where it already existed but it should not be spread into any new territories. This policy was bitterly opposed by the sotherners. The Republicans won the the elections & Lincoln became president. But before he took office (вступил в должность) 11 southern states seceded from (вышли из состава) the union & formed the Confederate States of America & Jefferson Davis was elected president. In April 1861 the Confederate government demanded the evacuation of federal trubs from Fort Sumter. When the commander of the Fort refused, the southerners opened fire & the Civil War began. The North was far stronger in population & industrial resources. There were 23 states in the union & 11 states in the confederacy. 22 min people lived in the Union & 9 mln in the South with 4 mln blacks.
The North had a tremendous advantage in industrial development, making nearly all war supplies. The South had to depend on foreign imports. In spite of these advantages the North was not very successful at the beginning of the war. The South enjoyed the support of the British rooling class, because Am. cotton was needed for British cotton industry. Another advantage of the southern planters was their unity of purpose. They knew that the fate of slavery was at stake, while in the North the ruling class was confused & divided over its objective (цель) in the war. Lincoln himself hesitated to abolish slavery. Besides the southern generals were much better than those of the North. “You don’t swob horses while crossing the streem”, said Lincoln. Only 18 months after the great outbreak of the war, Ab.Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation which declared all slaves after January 1 1863 free. The Proclamation ment a turning point. The war now had a revolutionary basis. Why is it called “the second American revolution”? As slavery was considered sign of feudalism, its abolition might be considered revolutionary, that’s why the Civil War is often referred to as the “Second American Revolution”. A military turning point of the war was the defeat of the South at Gettysburg in 1863. Lincoln at last found a capable general Grant & he was made commander of all the union forces. “Government of the people, by the people, for the people”- Gettysburg address (Lincoln). There were no more doubt about the victory of the North, but the southern fought till complete defeat. In April 1865 the northern trubes captured Richmond, which was the capital of Confederacy. On April 9, 1865 general Lee surrended (сдался) to general Grant & that was the end of the Civil War. 5 days later on April 14, 1865 Lincoln was assassinated (совершено покушение). He was shotted in the head & some hours later, he died. Ab. Lincoln had many nicknames: honest Abe; a great emancipator; abolishionist; had 4 children, but only 1 survived, his wife had a mental disease. “A ballet(бюллетень) is stronger than a bullet”, - Lincoln. “You can fool some of the people all the time, all of the people, some of the time, but you can never fool all of the people all the time”,- Ab.Lincoln.
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