The issue with slavery was one of the edgiest reason for the civil war; however it was one of the biggest support in the real cause of the civil war. The real reason for the American Civil War was not only about slavery, but it was Rupee’s role in the American economy. Rupee’s involvement of America’s economy can be dated as far back as Marco Polo’s expedition to China. In 1323, Marco Polo voyaged to China, a country that was obscure to the majority of Europeans.
Polo depicted China to be “abound With ginger, silk, and fowl” and also stated that ‘there [was] vast abundance of silk and much trade” (Marco Polo, Voyages and Travels tot Marco Polo, ). Europe, ready to explore the new land and new resource of wealth, decided to establish thriving trades with China. After years of successful trades, new conflicts had risen when the Turkish Empire conquered Constantinople and the eastern Mediterranean, allowing the powerful Empire to gain control of all land routes to the Silk Road (Zion, Columbus, The Indians, and Human progress).
Without an access to the silk and spices they desired, Europe soon turned their interest elsewhere for a trade route. In 1492, Spanish explorers were off on an expedition in search of a westward sea route to the Indies The expedition as led by Italian explorer Christopher Columbus who landed upon “unknown, uncharted land” in which he believed to be the Indies, but turned out to be the Americas. Columbus, believing he landed in the Indies, labeled the Native Airways Of the lands, “Indians. Afterwards, a series Of unfortunate events had followed involving the tragic enslavement and deaths of thousands of Native Americans that would cause the future colonists Of Jamestown, Virginia to focus on slave labor in order to keep their economy afloat (Zion, Columbus. The Indians, and Human Progress). If it were not for Rupee’s sponsor of Columbus’ expedition, slave labor would not have been the economic focus of the South. In 1607, the colony of Jamestown, Virginia was founded and was severely unstable due to the lack of knowledge of survival in the new world.
By the time the colony of Jamestown, Virginia became stabilized, they were solely dependent on slave labor in order to farm their sole cash crop, tobacco (Brio, 2012). Since Native Americans were tot no use as slave laborers due to their decreased population size and lack of immunization to European diseases, indentured servants were used for labor instead (Zion, Persons of a Mean and Vile Condition). This continued until 1619, when the first documented slaves from Africa arrived in Jamestown by the assistance of a European trade company.
African slaves soon became their main work force because of their affordability and immunization to diseases (Zion, Persons of a Mean and Vile Condition). As time went by, Great Britain became controlling and abusive of their powers over the colonies which caused the colonists to retaliate. The American Revolution took place and the colonies were able to win their freedom from Great Britain, thus creating the united States of America. The people of this newly armed nation split into two different sections and were now focused on developing their own economy.
The South focused their economy on agriculture While the North based their economy on manufacturing. By 1639, the South had a booming economy with more than 700 tons of tobacco exported to Europe, but discovered severe setbacks in return. Due to the large amount of tobacco planted during the year, the soil in which the farmers had used to plant the cash crop had become overworked and unusable for tobacco. Without any back up crops, the South’s economy was plummeted. The South had grown cotton alongside the tobacco plant, but it took a great deal of labor to plant, tend, and pick the cotton (Sheerer, 2012).
In order to process the plant, slaves had to separate the tiny seeds from the cotton fiber manually one by one. This was very time consuming and was thought out to not even be worth the effort why most farmers. The South’s agricultural economy was slowly dying off, along with the use fovea labor, If this had continued, slavery would have been completely abolished and the American Civil War would have never begun. Advance machinery and tools were soon developed and the Industrial Revolution began.
Inventions, such as the steam engine or cotton gin, made labor practically effortless and required a smaller amount of skill to operate (Sour and Sheerer, 2012). This pushed the North to produce countless factories for mass production The majority of Northern colonists functioned as factory workers and nearly all of the Northern Colonies had already abolished the useless act of slavery. However, due to the invention of the cotton gin, the South was greatly dependent upon slavery in order for their agricultural economy to flourish once again (Sheerer, 2012).
With that, demand Of cotton skyrocketed and the crop was shipped to Europe where it would be manufactured into cloth. Combined With the labor demand from plantations and the demand Of cotton from Europe, the slave trade was brought back into America and slavery spread across the Deep South. Heated arguments based upon the abolishment of slavery began to take place between the North and the South. While the North somewhat accepted blacks and thought slavery was cruel, the South thought of the slaves as more of property, rather than people. Due to their agricultural economy, the South squired slaves to survive.
Slaves were needed to work the cotton fields in order to fill the large orders from Great Britain and France; the South could not abolish slavery for their economy would not prosper if they did 50, If it were not for Rupee’s demand of cotton trot the South’s plantations, slavery would have died off and quite possibly prevented the American Civil War, Because of the slavery issue, there was a split between the newly formed country. It was essentially the states located in the North, known as the Union, versus the states located in the South, known as the Confederate.
The split came official when Abraham Lincoln, a Northern Republican, won the presidential election of 1860 and caused the South to secede from the nation (Zion, Persons of a Mean and Vile Condition). The reason for the South’s secession was due to the fact that the Southern states felt that Lincoln sought out to abolish slavery and was a threat to their rights to own slaves. The South knew that without any outside support from other countries, they would surely lose the war to the North. This is why the South would later on try to gain support from Great Britain and France using a tactic known as Cotton Diplomacy Sheerer, 2012).
Although the South had minor advantages, the North could easily overpower the South using population, materials, or tactics. Due to their disadvantages, the South sought out to gain support from Europe by using their number one export, cotton. The South’s cotton exports were vital for the British and French economy, so the South decided to use this to their advantage in order to gain support in the war from both countries (Sheerer, 2012). This tactic was known as “Cotton Diplomacy’ and was essentially a failure.
The South believed if they could hold off ton exports from Great Britain and France by employing a self-embargo act, then the countries would eventually cave in and support the underdog in the American Civil War. This would have worked it it were not tort the tact that the South overestimated the value of their cotton, The South believed that without their cotton, the British and French economies would collapse in disarray and would try anything to prevent a cotton famine, even if it meant supporting the South in their time of war and providing supplies for them (Sheerer, 2012). That was not vatu happened.
