Lately, in every post that I post about the history of the United States in the 19th century, a certain number of wiseacres have resorted, and let's teach me in the comments: “How naive is it to think that the American Civil War began because of slavery? ! " After that, they explain to me inappropriately that, of course, none of the Americans of that time would have fought against slavery, and in fact, the reason was completely different.

It is time to answer in detail this strange criticism, which is primarily based on the substitution of concepts. What caused the Civil War? Let me tell you briefly.

As we recall, at the end of the 18th century, when 13 separate colonies gathered and founded the United States of America, the issue of slavery was too sensitive to address. adopted at the time to preserve this conflict. The result was a kind of balance - the forces of the slave and free states in the US Congress were approximately equal. At the same time, the economies of the two sides developed in very different directions. In the South, tobacco and cotton plantations became the main source of income - there was a need for cheap labor, while the North became involved in the Industrial Revolution and began to develop industry, for which more skilled workers were needed. As a result, the population in the northern states began to grow faster than in the south.

In the first half of the 19th century, the United States began to expand westward, acquiring new territories. The settlers in these territories wanted to join the union as new states, replenishing one or another country. In the process, America has experienced several serious crises over 30 years, which were resolved by compromise. As a rule, the parties agreed on the creation of new states symmetrically: from 1820 to 1850, the number of free and slave states remained approximately the same.

But then this trend began to change. America was already a country of immigrants then. The overwhelming majority of the settlers who came from Europe were against slavery, and they did not have the money to buy slaves. Many of these people settled in new territories, which is why more and more new states by the middle of the 19th century decided to ban slavery within their borders. The balance of power in the Senate began to shift.

By 1860, southerners already felt themselves in a political minority. Northern politicians dominated both houses of Congress, and anti-slave sentiment in the North grew stronger. The inhabitants of the North have long viewed slavery as an immoral institution, and then books like Uncle Tom's Cabin began to stir up public opinion.

Of course, there were various kinds of conflicts between the North and South - economic and political, but almost all of them were rooted in the most important difference between these states: some prohibited slavery, others flourished because of it.

The presidential election of 1860 was a defining moment: Abraham Lincoln won only 40% of the vote, but because of it, he received more than the required half of the electors, and won. Lincoln built his political career in northern Illinois, and was an ardent opponent of slavery (while, by today's standards, racist). Because of such views, his candidacy was unacceptable to the southerners - moreover, in most southern states he was simply not included on the ballot papers! Despite this, and he was able to win, thus showing that the political influence of the South is over, and he will no longer be able to block laws that are unfavorable for him in the federal government.

A month and a half after Lincoln's victory, South Carolina announced its secession from the United States. In January 1861, four more states followed suit. Thus began a chain of events that eventually led to the war. The declarations of the secession of the southern states almost all mentioned the preservation of the institution of slavery in the list of reasons why they are taking such a serious step.

For example:

Declaration

the immediate reasons that coerce and justify the withdrawal of the state of Mississippi from the federal union:

In view of the significant step that our State has taken in severing its ties with the government of which we have been a part for so long, it would only be fair to state the important reasons that led us to this course of action.

Our position is strongly identified with the institution of slavery - the world's greatest material benefit. Its workforce produces a product that makes up the largest and most important part of all commercial activity on earth. These products are characteristic of a climate that borders on the tropical, and according to the laws of nature, no one except the black race can withstand the heat of the tropical sun ...

Most historians agree that it was the disconnection of the southern states that led to the war, and this disconnection was motivated by the desire to preserve the slaveholding order that had been established in the South. To argue that slavery was not the most important cause of the Civil War is simply ridiculous. At the same time, few people think that the motivation of the North in this conflict was to end slavery. Indeed, many of them were unpleasant, but not enough to risk their lives for canceling it. The northerners fought to preserve a single state, while the southerners wanted to secede in order to preserve their special way of life and the social structure of society. But whatever they wished to preserve came directly from the institution of slavery.

Arguments like "Lincoln was a racist himself" don't work here. Yes, I was. He was against slavery not because of some belief in the equality of blacks and whites, but for moral and religious reasons. But most of all, he wanted to preserve the integrity of the country, which he led at such a difficult hour. He did not succeed in keeping it as a divided nation, so he achieved integrity without slavery by war, abolishing it at first by decree only in the rebellious territories.

It would be foolish to say that the northerners fought in the Civil War to end slavery. This is not the position of those who see slavery as the main reason for that war. It's just that the southerners absolutely definitely declared independence, and fought to preserve the institution of slavery. Too much bondage in their society depended on him.

PS: Of course, a lot of smart people also came to this post. Dear wise men! I will gladly suck this topic with you in the comments, provided that you understand the difference between the following two statements:

1. One of the main reasons leading to the US Civil War was the fact that there was slavery in the South and not in the North.
2. The northerners started the Civil War for the freedom (or equality!) Of black slaves in the South.

These are two very different positions. Before arguing, understand that my post claims the first but not the second.

Image copyright AP Image caption General Sherman (leaning on the gun carriage) and his officers in the vicinity of Atlanta (1864 photo from the Library of Congress)

150 years ago, on November 15, 1864, a key event of the American Civil War took place: the famous "march to the sea" of the northerners under the command of William Sherman began.

The starting point of the hike was the capital of the state of Georgia - Atlanta.

The day before, the commander of the southerners' defense, General Hood, ordered to blow up 81 wagons of ammunition, which could not be taken with them, since the northerners cut the railroad. The result was a massive fire.

The world knows this story from the frames from the movie "Gone with the Wind", where Rhett Butler, whipping a horse, takes Scarlett out of the city through flames and explosions.

From November 15 to December 21, the 60,000-strong army of the northerners marched 360 kilometers from Atlanta to Savannah in four columns, destroying everything that could be destroyed and set on fire on its way.

By that time, the war had been fought for 3 years and 7 months with varying success. The purpose of such a radical measure was to economically ruin the South and deprive the enemy of the will to resist.

The March to the Sea illustrates how much mores have changed since then. Nowadays, no army would have resorted to such tactics, especially on their own land.

The then concepts of humanity and human rights were far from modern. Sherman forced the captured southerners to dig out anti-personnel mines with shovels, saying that otherwise his soldiers would die, and he was not obliged to spare his enemies.

Idea or pragmatism?

The main result of the Civil War was the abolition of slavery. However, the opinion that the northerners were fighting for a high idea does not fully reflect reality, especially at the first stage.

Indeed, there was an influential movement of abolitionists who demanded the abolition of slavery for moral reasons. It united intellectuals (suffice it to recall "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe), religious moralists and just decent people from all walks of life.

Some abolitionists risked their lives to help slaves escape to the free states. Southerners viewed this as theft and demanded the extradition of the fugitives and the punishment of accomplices, which served as a constant cause for friction.

However, many opponents of slavery did not at all consider blacks to be their equal and did not seek to see them in the North. It has even been argued that the southerners' fault is precisely that they brought slaves to America and created a problem.

There were even more of those who, in the spirit of American individualism, believed that southerners had the right to live as they wanted and there was no need to interfere in their affairs. This point of view was shared by most of the political and business elite of the North.

However, over time, controversies began to accumulate on other issues.

After the Revolutionary War, the wealthy and educated southern planters played virtually the same role for several decades as the nobles in Europe. Most of them recruited presidents, senior officials, generals and diplomats.

With the economic development of the North, there began to grow dissatisfaction with the fact that the region, which produces most of the GDP, is politically oppressed.

Psychological incompatibility intensified. In the North, work was in full swing, and the lifestyle of the southern planters resembled the life of Russian landowners under serfdom.

In the eyes of the heroes of Gone With the Wind, the Yankees were unpleasant, spiritless, fussy types, thinking only about money. They saw in the southerners pampered lazy people drowning in undeserved luxury.

In the 1850s, an insoluble conflict arose over import tariffs. The South, which exported cotton and tobacco to Europe and imported industrial products, demanded free trade, while the North, which survived the industrial revolution, demanded protectionism.

Another problem was created by the development of the Wild West, more precisely, the questions of whether slavery should be allowed in the new states, and whether land should be sold there or given away for free.

Under the first option, the lion's share of the land would be in the hands of planters with money and cheap labor. The northerners wanted everyone to be able to get an allotment in new territories and become a farmer.

In addition, southerners feared that the free states would eventually acquire a solid majority in Congress and be able to pass laws they liked without hindrance.

In 1854, Congress, after a long struggle, approved the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which allowed the new states to independently decide the question of slavery, which temporarily calmed the Southerners. However, the election in 1860 of the notorious anti-slavery Abraham Lincoln as president reawakened their fears.

Secession

The US Constitution did not explicitly permit or prohibit the secession of states from the federation.

South Carolina was the first to pass the "Secession Act" on December 20, 1860. During January, it was followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana.

On February 4, the six states convened the Provisional Congress and proclaimed a new independent state: the Confederation of the States of America.

In the next three and a half months, he was joined by Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. These 11 states adopted their constitution, which declared slavery to be eternal, and elected former Mississippi Senator Jefferson Davis as president. Virginia's main city, Richmond, became the capital of the Confederation.

During the war, the state of the northerners was called the "Union". It consisted of 23 states, including the slaveholding Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri and Maryland, which, after internal struggles, remained loyal to Washington.

The Indians, who themselves owned slaves, and most importantly, did not want the massive resettlement of northern colonists to their lands, took the side of the Confederation.

Trigger

On March 4, 1861, Lincoln took the presidential oath of office. In his inaugural speech, he declared the creation of the Confederation illegal, but promised not to use force against the southern states and not to abolish slavery in those territories where it existed.

The reason for the war was the capture by the Southerners on April 14 of Fort Sumter in South Carolina, which was a federal property.

When the shelling began, the commander of the garrison, Major Robert Anderson, surrendered without a fight, but demanded that the southerners salute him with hundreds of rifle volleys before lowering the US flag. A bullet accidentally hit an ammunition box, killing two of Anderson's subordinates, Pvts Daniel Howe and Edward Galloway. They became the first victims of the Civil War.

In the evening of the same day, Lincoln signed a declaration on the beginning of hostilities and the recruitment of 75 thousand volunteers.

The course of the war

The North accounted for 22 million people (in the South 9.1 million, including 3.6 million slaves), 60% of the territory, almost all industry, most of the merchant and military fleet, 70% of railways, 81% of bank deposits ...

My highest goal in this struggle is to preserve the union, not to preserve or abolish slavery. If I could save the union without freeing a single slave, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing some slaves and others not freeing, I would do it. But I do not intend to change my often expressed personal desire that all people everywhere should be free Abraham Lincoln, interview with the New York Times on August 22, 1862

However, the war began unfavorably for him.

In the first major battle of Bull Run in western Virginia, on July 21, 1861, the Northerners were defeated and fled.

Panic began in the capital. On July 25, Congress passed the "Crittenden-Johnson Resolution" declaring the sole purpose of the war to preserve the country's territorial integrity and requiring the Administration to take no action against the institution of slavery.

For gentlemen from the South, officer service was a hereditary occupation, and in the army of northerners, command posts up to colonels were recruited by inexperienced volunteers.

The commander-in-chief, General McLellan, for his indecision became the talk of the town. Grant, Sherman and other capable military leaders only advanced during the fighting, but the personnel leapfrog continued throughout the war.

Southerners were more motivated and united. In the North, there were restrictions on civil rights, which, by the way, is still blamed on Abraham Lincoln, but people who considered war unnecessary could express their opinions. In the South, as the Russian military historian Alexander Svechin pointed out, they would simply be shot for this. For the northerners, a compromise was possible under certain circumstances, but not for their opponents.

Ultimately, the North managed to win the war thanks to economic, numerical and naval superiority. The ports of the South were blocked, trade died, the population and the army began to suffer from a lack of basic necessities.

Captain Butler from the movie "Gone with the Wind", as you know, made a fortune by risking his life, delivering fabulously expensive goods to the South.

Revolutionary steps

But the main role was played by the will and determination of Lincoln. On December 30, 1862, he, bypassing Congress, signed the "Abolition of Slavery Proclamation," which went into effect within 48 hours.

Previously, the prevailing opinion in Europe was that the war was going on because of the ambitions of the northerners, who talk about freedom, but themselves did not allow the South to decide their own destiny. Now they have become fighters for a noble cause.

British textile factories suffered from cotton shortages and layoffs began. London and Paris were preparing to recognize the Confederation and send a fleet to lift the blockade, but under pressure from public opinion they were forced to reconsider their plans.

About 180 thousand slaves, having learned about the proclamation, fled from their masters and joined the army of the North, served as guides and scouts.

Earlier, in May 1862, on the initiative of Lincoln, Congress passed the Homestead Act, which outlawed slavery on new lands and guaranteed a free allotment of 160 acres to anyone who wanted it.

For the European poor, America has become a beacon of hope and a promised land. Within two years, 177,000 Germans and 144,000 Irish crossed the ocean and enlisted in Lincoln's army on the fly.

On July 1-3, 1863, the southerners invading Pennsylvania suffered a heavy defeat at Gettysburg for the first time. At the same time, General Grant captured the key fortress of Vicksburg in the Mississippi, capturing about 25,000 southerners and cutting the territory of the Confederation in two. On November 7, the Confederates were defeated at Rappanahok Station.

According to military historians, after these defeats, the South lost its chances of victory, as its human and economic reserves were exhausted. From now on, the only question was how long it would last.

On the eastern front, the southerners stubbornly resisted throughout 1864, but in the west, the fall of Atlanta and the "march to the sea" made further struggle useless.

By the spring of 1865, only 54,000 people remained at the disposal of the Commander-in-Chief of the Confederation, General Lee. On April 2, Richmond fell, on April 9, Lee surrendered to the commander-in-chief of the North and future president Ulysses Grant at Appomatox.

Jefferson Davis and members of his administration were arrested the next day.

On June 23, General Stand Wadey and his Indian unit surrendered. The war was over.

Russia's position

London and Paris during the Civil War supported the South: Britain for economic reasons, Napoleon III because he hoped to bring the Confederation under his influence. A number of southern states were formerly part of French Louisiana, sold in 1803 by his uncle.

Official St. Petersburg, in spite of its recent opponents in the Crimean War, took the side of the North.

Leading people, rejoicing at the recent abolition of serfdom, warmly welcomed the struggle against slavery overseas.

In Russian diplomatic documents and the press, the Confederation was referred to as the "outraged states."

From September 1863 to July 1864, the Russian squadrons of admirals Lesovsky and Popov were in New York and San Francisco.

Popov ordered his crews to intervene if the Southerners tried to attack San Francisco from the sea.

The ships of the New York squadron were visited by about 500 American congressmen and officials.

"Russia and the United States are Fraternizing"; "The Russian cross is intertwined with stars and stripes"; "An enthusiastic popular demonstration on Fifth Avenue," wrote the American newspapers.

"The municipality and the upper bourgeoisie shower Russian officers with honors. But the French and English sailors are not at all visible on the shore, although up to five thousand of them are located in the cramped space of the local sea anchorage. Officers do not want to play a secondary role at festivities where Russians are lions and sailors they are not allowed because the Americans are luring them into their service, "the London Times reported.

“President Lincoln sincerely wishes the reception to reflect the sincerity and friendliness that our country has for Russia,” said Secretary of State William Seward.

Forgetting for a while about its republican and liberal convictions, the White House expressed solidarity with St. Petersburg on the question of suppressing the Polish uprising.

Mark on history

Since then, there has been no military action on American territory, except for clashes with Indians and the death in early 1945 of six picnic participants (a pregnant wife of a pastor and five teenagers) in Oregon from a bomb delivered by a Japanese balloon.

Almost four million people took part in the Civil War (2,803,300 from the North and 1,064,200 from the South).

359 thousand northerners and 258 thousand southerners died in battles, died from wounds and diseases, and a total of over 617 thousand people - more than the United States lost in all other wars in which it participated.

Military expenditures and material losses were estimated at 3.5 billion at the time, or approximately 210 billion today.

Military experts consider the American Civil War to be the last war of the old type in the world, when the main types of hostilities were hand-to-hand and saber-cutting. However, it also brought some innovations.

On March 9, 1862, the first ever battle of armored ships took place on the Hampton roadstead off the coast of Virginia.

On February 17, 1864, the southern submarine Hanley, propelled by the muscular force of eight sailors rotating the crankshaft, also torpedoed an enemy ship (corvette Husatonic) for the first time in history.

In the battle of Seven Pines on May 31 - June 1, 1862, both sides used machine guns, however, primitive, and did not significantly affect the course of the battle.

In August-September 1863, the northerners used barbed wire for military purposes near Chattanooga.

For the first time, however, not in world, but in American history, both sides resorted to forced mobilization (southerners from April, and northerners from July 1862).

In November 1864, Abraham Lincoln was elected to the next term on the wave of military victories. On April 14, 1865, he was shot dead in the theater by actor John Booth, who avenged the defeat of the South and, pulling the trigger, exclaimed in Latin: "Such is the fate of tyrants!"

Most familiar to the Russian reader, the American Civil War (War of the North and South, War between the States, War of Independence of the South, War of Secession) occupies one of the most important places. It is covered in school and university textbooks, works of historians and publicists, works of art. At the same time, the myth of the war "for the freedom of slaves" occupies a central place.

This is the main myth about the war between the North and the South. If you ask any person who has heard about this war (unfortunately, the "reforms" of Russian education have already led to the fact that a significant percentage of young people do not know elementary things) why the North and South fought, most will say: “We fought for the abolition of slavery in the South , for the freedom of black slaves. " Allegedly, the South stood on the positions of racism and slavery and wanted to enslave everyone, and the progressive northerners led by Lincoln sincerely believed in the equality of all people and started a war to abolish slavery.

The truth is not that romantic. The precondition for the conflict was the weakness of the central government and the division of the country into two economically independent regions - the agrarian South and the industrial North. In North America, two elite groups emerged with conflicting interests. In the North, a powerful industry and banking sector was formed in the previous period. They realized that the slave trade and slavery, as well as the agrarian sector, does not bring such fabulous profits as enslaving interest on loans and the exploitation of millions of "free" people, visiting migrants. Moreover, the working conditions in enterprises where "free" people worked were often worse than the life of slaves in patriarchal plantations.

The capitalist economy of the North demanded an expansion of the labor market, new millions of "two-legged implements" that would work in enterprises and become consumers. This is also slavery, but on a different, more advanced level. At present, this system has been perfected - “consumption for the sake of consumption”. Moreover, further expansion is impossible, the capitalist system has come to the limit of growth. It was already approaching this border in the 1970s, when the West was on the verge of defeat. But the West was able to survive by destroying, plundering and capturing the markets of the socialist bloc. At present, the entire system of development of capitalism stops, and the global systemic crisis can only be overcome by a transition to a more advanced system (fair in its essence), or by “resetting the matrix”, that is, destroying the old world (global war), which is what is happening.

The United States came to this conflict in the middle of the 19th century. The owners of the North needed millions of new workers for their enterprises, new consumers. The expansion of the system was required, otherwise there would be a crisis and degradation. Thousands of agricultural machines could replace slaves in agriculture, increasing profitability. The northern clans needed power over all the states. Before the start of the war, the United States ranked fourth in terms of industrial production. To do this, they used a sweatshop system - a form of production that allowed the most extreme exploitation of the worker (in fact, the workers were crippled or killed in a fairly short period of time, not allowing them to live to old age), driving to death the white poor and "white slaves", visiting white migrants - Irish, Germans, Scots, Swedes, Poles, Italians and others. But the masters of the States needed first place in the world.

In the 19th century, the States were just moving towards world leadership, so the northern clans needed control over the South. The discovery of the richest gold deposits in California in 1848 allowed in 1850-1886. mine more than a third of the world's production of this precious metal. Prior to this, thanks to the growth of the gold industry in Siberia, the Russian Empire was ranked first in the world in gold mining. Thanks to gold, as well as the brutal exploitation of workers, the United States was able to launch the construction of a huge railway network. However, to complete the internal preparation of the country for the battle for dominance on the planet, it was necessary to close the issue with the South.

The southern planters created a self-sufficient region and were content with what they had. They had no grandiose plans to build a New World Order. For agriculture, which was the backbone of the South, the existing labor resources were sufficient. The main crops in the South were tobacco, sugarcane, cotton, and rice. Raw materials from the South went to northern enterprises and abroad.

The southern elite was pleased with the prevailing order. At the same time, the southern elite was in some respect even more humane towards representatives of other races, peoples and confessions than the masters of the North. The French lived in Louisiana, the Spaniards in Florida, and the Mexicans in Texas. The Anglo-Saxon Protestants, occasionally Germans and Dutch, could break into the elite of the North. Catholics were discriminated against. In the South, the attitude towards Catholics was much more favorable, the elite there included Catholics of French and Spanish descent.

In the South, Negroes, on the one hand, were property, as in the North, they could be sold, lost or killed for offenses. On the other hand, it was a valuable property, the blacks had food, housing, their own plots of land, could join the achievements of culture, and in some cases even were like family members. They weren't starving. And what did "freedom" give them? They will simply be kicked out of the barracks, huts, from the land of their owners-planters, they will be deprived of all that little that they had. At the same time, a law banning vagrancy will be passed. As a result, the country will be overwhelmed by a wild rampant "black crime". In response, the whites will begin to create popular guards of the Ku Klux Klan, a wave of "Lynch Courts" will roll. Mutual hatred and fear will create an atmosphere of fear, a fully governed society.

Therefore, it is not surprising that a fairly large military contingent of Negroes - slaves and free - fought on the side of the Confederates. Already in 1862, large (up to several thousand) detachments of armed Negroes were noted in the Confederate army. According to various estimates, from 30-40 to 65-100 thousand blacks fought on the side of the Confederates. True, most of them were in non-combatant positions - builders, blacksmiths, cooks, orderlies. The military units of the army of the Confederate States of America (CSA) began to recruit slaves only at the end of the war. But in the militias of individual states, which were subordinate to the governor of the state, and not to the central government, blacks served almost from the very beginning of the war. Quite often negros fought with their masters, were their squires, bodyguards. At the same time, in the army of the southerners, in contrast to the army of the northerners, there was no discrimination on the basis of race. So, in particular, the monetary allowance for white and colored fighters was the same. The Confederates had mixed parts, formed from representatives of different races. For example, in the 34th Cavalry Regiment, White, Black, Hispanic and Red Confederates served. Separate Negro regiments were formed among the northerners, where officers were white. Negroes were not allowed to serve in the same units with whites. Negroes were also discriminated against in the assignment of officer and non-commissioned officer ranks. So, by the end of the war, only 80 blacks became officers in the army of the northerners - out of about 180-185 thousand who were in the black regiments.

Most of the Indians sided with the Confederacy. This is not surprising, since in the North the principle of “A good Indian is a dead Indian” was applied to the Redskins. Therefore, many Indians sided with the Confederation. So, the Cherokee even before the start of the war had their own court, government, writing, newspaper and even several thousand slaves. They were already part of the civilization of the South. For the service of the Confederation, they were promised the payment of all debts, their admission to the Confederate Congress, the soldiers were given all social rights.

Preparing for the fight

The North-South War was a clash between two American elites. The elite of the North wanted to establish dominance over all of North America, and then the planet. Both whites and blacks were "cannon fodder" for the elite of the North. The elites of the South were satisfied with the current situation and when the northerners began to exert too much pressure, they decided to fight for independence, for their own way of life. For the majority of southerners (the real slave owners in the South were an insignificant minority, the planters were less than 0.5% of the population) this was a war for trampled independence and freedom, they considered themselves a nation in danger. The southerners decided to commit secession - it is quite legal in the States to secede from the federal state.

Preparations for the war took a long time. In the United States, even then, before the war, they carried out an information campaign, prepared public opinion. It was necessary to create an image of the enemy, the damned planters who oppress the blacks (although the position of the blacks in the North was no better). In the US, they have always tried to look like the "good guys." The preparatory stage was quite successful. So successfully that until now in the mass consciousness, especially in the States themselves, the opinion prevails that the valiant army of the northerners heroically fought "for the freedom of blacks."

Back in 1822, under the auspices of the American Colonization Society (an organization established in 1816) and other private American organizations, a colony of "free people of color" was created in Africa. In the northern states, they recruited several thousand blacks (vagabonds, escaped slaves, from whom there was little use) and sent to West Africa. In 1824 the colony of "free people" was named Liberia. It should be noted that the American-Liberians, as they called themselves, did not seek to join the "roots of the ancestors." They behaved like Western colonialists: they captured the entire coast of modern Liberia, then also occupied parts of the coast of modern Sierra Leone and Cote d'Ivoire. Liberians did not consider themselves Africans, called themselves Americans, retained American state symbols, and tried to create a caste society, to dominate the indigenous people, whom they considered barbarians and people of the lowest class.

After that, a loud information campaign "against the oppression of blacks" began in the United States. Moreover, the campaign was carried out not only in the press, which served the interests of big business, but also among southern blacks. For a long time Negroes did not succumb to provocation, they did not want to seek happiness in distant and unfamiliar Africa. However, in the end, the situation in the South was shaken. A wave of senseless and violent riots swept through, which were brutally suppressed.

An important role in this process was played by the movement for the emancipation of black slaves in the United States (abolitionism). It was created in the 1830s, when the American Anti-Slavery Society was founded and the Liberator newspaper was published. Even earlier, many abolitionists were members of the American Colonization Society. That created Liberia. Abolitionists orchestrated the flight of slaves from the South to the North, undermining the peace between the states. They were able to carry out a large information campaign on the occasion of the attempt to seize the arsenal at Harpers Ferry by John Brown in 1859. Brown, a former religious fanatic who was inspired by the images of the Old Testament, where heroes did not hesitate to massacre "in the name of the Lord", already "famous" for the massacre in Potawatomi Creek. In May 1854, he and his gang knocked on houses, posing as lost travelers, broke into those houses where people were opened and killed for them. On October 16, 1859, Brown attempted to seize the government arsenal at Harpers Ferry (in present-day West Virginia), hoping to cause a general uprising of the negroes. However, the gamble failed. Brown's small force was blocked and destroyed. Brown was arrested and executed. In the North, a fanatic and a murderer were turned into a hero.

The organizers of the information war could be happy - an offensive to the South could be launched under the "humane" slogans of "liberation of slaves." Thus, the information campaign was won even before the outbreak of the war. That is why the South during the war found itself in diplomatic isolation and could not get loans.

In addition, the fact that England, France and Spain were engaged in the war in Mexico played a role. They got involved in an adventure, but in the end they lost. You can also recall that Russia, offended by the Eastern (Crimean) War, sent two squadrons to New York and San Francisco with an order in case England and France entered the war to immediately start a cruising war in support of the North. Therefore, England, although sympathetic to the South, did not intervene in the war. The threat was serious, Britain at this time did not have the strength to protect trade communications.

To be continued…

One of the few wars that took place in the United States is the Civil. It flared up 150 years ago between the northern and southern states for determining the future fate of the institution of slavery in the young state.

Preconditions for war

Despite the apparent unity of the country, the attitude towards immigrants from Africa in the northern states was more severe, they lived separately from their white masters.

The southern states were focused on agricultural products, while in the north the industry was more developed. Complementing each other, both parts of the country were in symbiosis, but there were contradictions. The South wanted world trade, the North wanted to raise import taxes to protect industry.

There was no consensus about the fate of the new states joining the Union. There was no single point of view on the issues of slaves and their freedom, about whether the new state would be slave or free.

In 1854, the Republican Party was created, and in 1860, Abraham Lincoln came to power in it.

Rice. 1. Portrait of Abraham Lincoln.

Its main task was the fight against slavery and the acceptance of all new states in the status of free. In response, the five states of the South announced their secession from the Union in January 1861. And shortly before that, on December 20, 1860, South Carolina announced the creation of a new state - the Confederation of the States of America (CSA), which was joined by the states that had recently left the Union. Perpetual slavery was declared in this territory, and Jefferson Davis became the President of the new country. Later, another 5 states (11 in total) will join the CSA.

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The North could not accept this state of affairs. It was decided to use force of arms to force the CSA to return to the Union. This was the beginning of the Civil War.

American Civil War 1861-1865

Let's summarize the entire chronology of the main events of the Civil War in a general table.

Rice. 2. Map of the American Civil War.

On December 30, 1862, he signed the Emancipation Proclamation. From January 1, 1863, all slaves of the southern states were declared free.

It should be noted that the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw and Seminole Indian tribes also sided with the CSA. They even had their representatives in the CSA Senate, who had the right to listen but not speak.

Speaking about the results of the Civil War in the United States, it should be noted that initially the success was accompanied by the southerners, however, thanks to the decrees of Abraham Lincoln, the northerners managed to win supporters in the south, which made a turning point in the war. As a result of hostilities, losses on both sides amounted to more than 600 thousand people, and 3 million dollars were spent on the purchase of weapons.

Rice. 3. Battle of Five Fox.

It should also be mentioned that on January 1, 1863, the Homestead Act signed by Lincoln entered into force, according to which US citizens could receive unoccupied land in the west of the country.

On December 18, 1865, the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution officially prohibited slavery. Immediately after the war, industry and the agricultural sector began to develop rapidly in the United States, and the internal market strengthened. Power in the country was concentrated in the hands of the bourgeoisie of the northeastern states. By the way, many problems remained unresolved. The most striking of them is the preservation of the unequal rights of the black and white population.

What have we learned?

Speaking briefly about the American Civil War, it should be noted that it went on for a long time. Turning the tide of the war, the northerners won it, establishing a new order in the young American state, realizing the tasks they faced in the conflict with the South.

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THE CIVIL WAR IN THE USA, 1861-65, was the result of an acute conflict between the northern and southern states over the issue of black slavery. During the 1775-83 War of Independence in North America, slavery was abolished in the northern states of the United States. The activists of the War of Independence believed that it would gradually wither away throughout the country due to its growing unprofitability. However, at the turn of the 18-19 centuries, planters from the southern states switched from the production of unprofitable tobacco to the cultivation of cotton, the demand for which in the world market was rapidly increasing. The invention of the cotton gin during this period in the United States increased the profitability of cotton growing tenfold. The planters sought to seize as much free land in the West of the United States as possible and involve them in their economic system. Their interests came into conflict with the interests of the northern states, which also claimed the western territories, but with the aim of developing free farms and capitalist entrepreneurship there.

In 1820, the free and slave states reached an agreement that no farms north of 36 ° 30 'north latitude would be created that use black slave labor. This agreement was respected until the end of the 1840s, until the question arose of whether slavery could be allowed in the territories conquered from Mexico during the Mexican-American War of 1846-48. In 1854, in connection with the desire of southerners to legalize slavery in Kansas and Nebraska, located north of the conditional border, the conflict between supporters and opponents of slavery escalated, the first armed clashes took place. In the same year, opponents of the spread of slavery to the new states of the United States created the United States Republican Party. The radical minority of the party, speaking under the slogans of abolitionism, demanded the elimination of the institution of slavery throughout the United States as incompatible with fundamental national values.

In 1860, Republican leader A. Lincoln won the presidential election. The leadership of the slave states of South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana declared that the political program of the new administration was unacceptable to him and on 4.2.1861, a month before Lincoln took office as president, announced its secession from the United States and the creation of its own state - Confederate States of America (CSA; Confederation). Its president was a wealthy planter, former Mississippi Senator, Defense Secretary J. Davis, and former Georgia Senator A. Stevens was elected vice president. 1861 they were sworn in. Stevens laid out the creed of the rebellious states: "The cornerstone of our state is the great truth that the black man is not equal to the white man and that slavery - the subordination of the superior race - is his natural and normal state." On 2.3.1861 the state of Texas joined the CSA.

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Taking the presidency on 4.3.1861, A. Lincoln said that he considers his primary task to restore the unity of the United States, and postpones all reforms, including the prohibition of slavery in new territories, indefinitely. Lincoln's conciliatory stance did not affect the Southerners. 12/04/1861 Confederate troops attacked and captured Fort Sumter in South Carolina (this date is considered the beginning of the civil war in the United States). Lincoln declared the South in a state of rebellion and began recruiting 75,000 volunteers into the federal army (subsequently, conscription was introduced in the northern states). In response, 4 more southern states joined the CSA - Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina. The states of Kentucky and Missouri each have two governments. The territories of Arizona and New Mexico, which did not have state status, announced their entry into the CSA. Several Indian tribes went over to their side. In 1861, 100 thousand people were drafted into the army of the Confederation. It was headed by General R.E. Lee. In total, during the war, 2.7 million people were drafted into the army of the North, and 1.1 million people were drafted into the army of the South.

Military operations during the Civil War in the United States were conducted on a vast territory bounded from the north and west by the Potomac, Ohio, Missouri rivers, from the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and from the south by the Gulf of Mexico. The northern states (population 22 million) were covered by a dense network of railways and had a developed industry (almost all of the metallurgical, textile and arms industries of the United States were concentrated in them). The southern states were home to about 9 million people, including 4 million black slaves. The South did not have the necessary economic base to wage a long war.

The plan for the war of the slaveholders of the South was adventurous in nature and was calculated on the use of surprise and assistance from Great Britain and France. It was supposed to quickly take possession of a number of states, strike at Washington and force the federal government to accept the terms of the leadership of the Confederation. The strategic plan of the northerners was of a passive-defensive nature (see "Anaconda").

At the first stage of the war (1861-62), the only goal of A. Lincoln and his supporters was to restore the unity of the United States; the question of the elimination of the institution of slavery and the fate of the western territories was not raised. For a year and a half, federal troops mostly suffered defeats in clashes with CSA forces. Already in the first serious battle at Manassas (or Bul-Ran), near Washington, on 7/21/1861, the northerners were defeated by the southerners. They suffered two defeats in an attempt to capture the capital of the southern states - Richmond (in the battles of 26.6-27.1862 on the Chickahomin River and 11-13.12.1862 at Fredericksburg). However, the attempts of the southerners to take possession of Washington ended in failure. On September 16-17, 1862, they were unable to defeat the federal army at the Battle of Antietama and were forced to withdraw across the Potomac River. In the west and south, the troops of the northerners under the command of Generals US Grant and B. Butler, with the support of the squadron of Admiral D. G. Farragut, occupied Memphis, Corinth and New Orleans. The northerners blocked the ports of the southern states with their fleet, thereby depriving them of their connection with Great Britain and France. The actions of the southern cruisers ("Alabama" and others) caused significant damage to the northerners' merchant fleet, but did not have a serious impact on the course of the war.

Under the influence of military failures, A. Lincoln and his supporters carried out a number of measures that gave the methods of waging a civil war a revolutionary character. In 1862, a law was passed to confiscate the property of the rebels and the death penalty was introduced for treason to the United States. On 5/20/1862, the federal government issued the Homestead Act, which effectively banned the spread of slavery to new territories and contributed to the establishment of the farming path of agriculture in them. The Homestead Act provided the Lincoln administration with the support of the general population of the United States. On 1.1.1863, the "Emancipation of Slaves" Proclamation prepared by the federal government entered into force in the states that entered the CSA (slaves were freed without ransom, but also without land; in the slave states that remained loyal to the US government, slavery remained).

In 1863, a new stage of the war began, which was characterized by important changes in the political life of the country, in the strategy and tactics of the federal army, which received a significant replenishment: 186 thousand blacks joined the military units of the northerners (72% of them came from the southern states); 250 thousand blacks served in the rear divisions.

Although the Northern forces were defeated at Chancellorsville on 2-4.5.1863, the war was turning. Of particular importance was the battle between the federal army under the command of General J. Meade and the southerners at Gettysburg (Pennsylvania) 1-3.7.1863, in which the southerners suffered a crushing defeat. Success was achieved by the northerners in the Mississippi River Basin, where US Grant's army laid siege to and forced the Vicksburg Fortress to surrender on 4/4/1863. As a result of this victory, the entire Mississippi line was in the hands of the northerners, the territory of the Confederation was divided into 2 parts. In 1863, the international positions of the government of A. Lincoln were strengthened. This was largely facilitated by the policy of Russia, which was interested in the existence of a united United States, opposing Great Britain and France, which at that time were its main rivals. The arrival in September - October 1863 of two Russian squadrons (in New York and San Francisco) was perceived in the United States and in Western European countries as a friendly demonstration against the Lincoln government.

The fighting of the northerners from March 1864, after the appointment of US Grant as commander-in-chief of the federal armed forces, were decisive.

On September 19-20, 1864, the southern army was defeated again at Winchester. Of great importance was the "march to the sea" carried out by the army of the northerners under the command of General W. T. Sherman. On September 2, 1864, she occupied Atlanta, and on December 21 - Savannah, reaching the Atlantic coast.

In the fall of 1864, A. Lincoln won a new victory in the presidential election. By this time, the outcome of the civil war in the United States was virtually a foregone conclusion. Republicans took the success in the presidential election as a mandate for the complete abolition of black slavery in the United States. In January 1865, Congress considered and approved the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which completely outlawed slavery in the country. The position of the Republicans on the further fate of the former slaves also changed. The US government abandoned plans to export blacks to Africa and Latin America and agreed that the former slaves, who fought for their release with weapons in their hands, were worthy of American citizenship.

The political successes of Lincoln and the Republicans were bolstered by final military victories. In January - March 1865, the federal army occupied South and North Carolina - the main stronghold of the rebels. On 3.4.1865, the capital of CSA, Richmond, fell. On April 9, 1865, the southern army under the command of R.E. Lee was surrounded at Appomattox and surrendered. On 04/26/1865, the army surrendered, commanded by General J.E. Johnston. The rest of the southerners' troops ceased resistance by 2.6.1865. The war ended with the complete defeat of the Confederation. The victory of the northerners was overshadowed by the tragic death of A. Lincoln (15.4.1865).

The Civil War of 1861-65 was the bloodiest in US history. The losses of the North in killed and dead from wounds and diseases amounted to 360 thousand people, in the South - 258 thousand people. As a result of the war, the state unity of the United States was restored, the institution of slavery was destroyed, favorable conditions were created for the restructuring of the system of public relations in the southern states (see Reconstruction of the South of the United States) and the development of capitalism in US agriculture along the farming path.

Lit. : Kuropyatnik G. P. The Second American Revolution. M., 1961; Ivanov R. F. A. Lincoln and the Civil War in the United States. M., 1964; Sogrin V.V. Ideology in American History from the Founding Fathers to the End of the 20th Century. M., 1995; Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: a political, social, and military history / Ed. D.S. Heidler, J.T. Heidler. N.Y. 2000 (bibl.); Sogrin V.V. History of the United States. SPb. et al., 2003; Blair J. E. The essential Civil War: a handbook to the battles, armies, navies and commanders. Jefferson, 2006.