In any conflict there are at least two sides to a disagreement whose differences may expand exponentially over the course of the conflict. Wars are typical of such conflicts, and the United States Civil War underscores how, even within one nation, two sides of a disagreement may be more complex than is readily apparent; winners and losers are not always easily distinguishable from each other. War is rarely simple, and the outcome is not always what is predicted. This paper will briefly analyze the conflict of the War Between the States from 1861 - 1865, discussing the differing perceptions of the North and South, and then analyzing why the North won, while the South lost.
While the generalization is that the Civil War was fought over slavery, in reality, the reasons were much more diverse and far-reaching than that. Both North and South, Republican and Democrat parties, viewed the conflict and struggled with it in their own unique ways, and in turn brought their own particular issues to the table (Goldfield, Abbot, Anderson, Argersinger, Argersinger, Barney and Weir 455).
On the South's side, this was an issue over more than slavery. This was a conflict over states' rights and whether or not this was a country with a powerful central government and weak state governments, or strong state governments more or less linked by a weaker central government (Goldfield, et al. 455, 457-458). Many Southerners saw themselves as defenders of the original Constitution (459). On the Northern end, Lincoln, the Federal Government, as well as most people in the Union, did not link this conflict with slavery either, but instead viewed it as putting down a rebellion by those who would destroy the unity of thd United States. In fact, Lincoln stated that in preserving the Union, they were preserving the "hopes for democratic government around the world" (460). Indeed, in the beginning, neither side believed that this would be a war of any dur...