Quote from : Wikipedia : Civil war

A civil war is a war between organized groups within a single nation state, or, less commonly, between two nations created from a formerly-united nation state.

The aim of one side may be to take control of the nation or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.

It is high-intensity conflict, often involving regular armed forces, that is sustained, organized and large-scale.

Civil wars may result in large numbers of casualties and the consumption of significant resources.

Civil wars since the end of World War II have lasted on average just over four years, a dramatic rise from the one-and-a-half year average of the 1900-1944 period.

While the rate of emergence of new civil wars has been relatively steady since the mid-1800s, the increasing length of those wars resulted in increasing numbers of wars ongoing at any one time.

For example, there were no more than five civil wars underway simultaneously in the first half of the twentieth century, while over 20 concurrent civil wars were occurring at the end of the Cold War, before a significant decrease as conflicts strongly associated with the superpower rivalry came to an end.

Since 1945, civil wars have resulted in the deaths of over 25 million people, as well as the forced displacement of millions more.

Civil wars have further resulted in economic collapse; Burma (Myanmar), Uganda and Angola are examples of nations that were considered to have promising futures before being engulfed in civil wars.

Scholars investigating the cause of civil war are attracted by two opposing theories, greed versus grievance.

Roughly stated: are conflicts caused by who people are, whether that be defined in terms of ethnicity, religion or other social affiliation, or do conflicts begin because it is in the economic best interests of individuals and groups to start them?

Scholarly analysis supports the conclusion that economic and structural factors are more important than those of identity in predicting occurrences of civil war.

Quote from : Wikipedia : American Civil War

The American Civil War (1861–1865), also known as the War Between the States as well as several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America.

Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America, also known as simply "the Confederacy".

Led by Jefferson Davis, they fought against the United States (the Union), which was supported by all the free states and the five border slave states.

In the presidential election of 1860, the Republican Party, led by Abraham Lincoln, had campaigned against the expansion of slavery beyond the states in which it already existed.

The Republican victory in that election resulted in seven Southern states declaring their secession from the Union even before Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861.

Both the outgoing administration of President James Buchanan, and Linocln's incoming administration rejected the legality of secession, considering it rebellion.

Hostilities began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked a US military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

Lincoln responded by calling for a volunteer army from each state, leading to declarations of secession by four more Southern slave states.

Both sides raised armies as the Union assumed control of the border states early in the war and established a naval blockade.

In September 1862, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation made ending slavery in the South a war goal, and dissuaded the British from intervening.

Confederate commander Robert E. Lee won battles in the east, but in 1863 his northward advance was turned back with heavy casualties after the Battle of Gettysburg and, in the west, the Union gained control of the Mississippi River after their capture of Vicksburg, Mississippi, thereby splitting the Confederacy in two.

Long-term Union advantages in men and materiel were realized in 1864 when Ulysses S. Grant fought battles of attrition against Lee, while Union general William Tecumseh Sherman captured Atlanta, Georgia, and marched to the sea.

Confederate resistance collapsed after Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.

The American Civil War was one of the earliest true industrial wars in human history.

Railroads, steamships, mass-produced weapons, and various other military devices were employed extensively.

The practices of total war, developed by Sherman in Georgia, and of trench warfare around Petersburg foreshadowed World War I in Europe.

It remains the deadliest war in American history, resulting in the deaths of 620,000 soldiers and an undetermined number of civilian casualties.

Ten percent of all Northern males 20-45 years of age died, as did 30 percent of all Southern white males aged 18-40.

Victory for the North meant the end of the Confederacy and of slavery in the United States, and strengthened the role of the federal government.

The social, political, economic and racial issues of the war decisively shaped the reconstruction era that lasted to 1877.

Originally posted by Alien Mind
reply to post by Southern Guardian

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The north is just as guilty as the south is for owning slaves.