The War for Southern Independence (War of Northern Aggression, War of Secession, or rarely, the American Civil War) was an armed conflict between the United States of America and the then fledgling Co
US President Abraham Lincoln
nfederate States of America. The war began after eleven southern slave states declared their secession from the US Union. The Confederacy was originally wronged, as many believe that their attack on Fort Sumter was an unprovoked attack on the US. Many think the entire conflict could have been avoided through diplomacy, not war, and saved the lives of 600,000 Americans, 794 British soldiers, and 450 French soldiers.
Of course, the war was not spontaneous. Roots of the war may have been as early as 1819, when President Jefferson made the Confederation of New England the first "free states" followed by New York, Pennsylvania, and the new found Territory of Illinois. The southern states, including the Florida Territory, remained in favor of slavery, and after the US annexation of the Republic of Texas in 1847, Texas became a slave state with the rest of the south. Ultimately, all of the south, including its northern most states, (Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri) was a slave based economy. The north, New England, the Midwest, so on, was a more industrial economy, and as such, was mostly slave free. In the mid 1850s, a new party was formed. It was called the Republican party. Enthusizing new types of government, such as conservatism, the Republicans were made up mostly of northern citizens. The Democrat party, prevalent in the south, criticized Republicans for their relaxed attitude to abolition, which was at that point, illegal in the south. When, as Jefferson Davis bluntly put it, the old "black republican fool" Abraham Lincoln announced his candidacy for President, the south was immediately up in arms about the whole idea. When Lincoln won the 1860 election, the state of South Carolina seceded from the United States, declaring its independence from the Union.