8 - The US Civil War (61-65)

Question 1

2 events that led the paths to belligerence

Answer 1

1) 1854 : Kansas-Nebraska Act
2) 1857 : SC and Dred Scott case

Question 2

The Confederacy

Answer 2

11 states
– An unwavering president (Jefferson Davis) but a certain political instability
– A new constitution recognizing slavery but maintaining the ban on slave trade
– Less industrialized and weaker economy of the south
– 9M inhabitants (including 3,5 million enslaved people)
– A strong military tradition, enthusiasm and most of the main American military leaders
– The need for a quick and decisive victory to allow a good negotiation

Question 3

The Union

Answer 3

Lincoln and mostly Republican cabinet
main goal: the defence of the Union, to rally unionists of other political parties (avoided secession of many states)
≠ abolition of slavery
- 23M
– Systematic mobilization of all resources of the Unionist states
– Long-term strategy : “Anaconda strategy” = naval blockade of the Confederate littoral, a thrust down the Mississippi, and the strangulation of the South by Union land and naval forces

Question 4

A Modern War

Answer 4

– Everywhere
– Technical improvements : Railroad, Guns and canons (range, precision, reloading process)
+ At sea: ironclad warships, submarines, mines.
* In the air: balloons to watch the enemy’s lines and to direct the firing of the guns.
– Guerrilla regularly used.
– Black soldiers serving in the Union army and navy (200k total)

Question 5

A Classic War

Answer 5

> Medicine and surgery kept lagging behind: more soldiers killed by camp illnesses than by battle wounds.

> harsh fate of POWs

> Military leaders not very creative in terms of strategy and tactics :
– Still a strong belief in Napoleonic precepts
– Tight formations and no realization that the technical improvements in terms of armament caused bloodshed&raquo_space; monstrous losses 620k dead total

Question 6

A Total War ?

Answer 6

> growing role of women (hospital volunteers, members of sanitary conventions, replaced men in businesses farms and communities
home fronts at work
obj became the unconditional surrender of the enemy

BUT
> Economy in the North not entirely devoted to the war
> No “ideological mobilization” through propaganda and education
> No idea of a complete elimination of the enemy

A classic war that degenerated in a “close to being total” war (James McPherson)

> > Warlike phenomenon in transformation

Question 7

Economic consequences

Answer 7

– Much more destructions in the South : tattered economy and largely destroyed economic infrastructures
– Northern economic dynamism considerably increased and a crucial tool

Question 8

3 important steps for slavery post-war

Answer 8

> December 1865 : 13th Amendment integrated in the Constitution
July 1868 : the 14th amendment - Citizenship and thus civil rights granted to the former slaves.
30 March 1870 : implementation of the 15th amendment - Right to vote given to the former slaves.

Question 9

13th Amendment constitutional

Answer 9

December 1865
no slavery except as punishment

Question 10

14th Amendment

Answer 10

July 1868
citizenship and civil rights to former slaves

Question 11

15th Amendment

Answer 11

30 March 1870
right to vote to former slaves

Question 12

contrasted “Reconstruction” period

Answer 12

> President Andrew Johnson trapped between :
– Radical Republicans and southern hatred
– Moderation and firmness

> Right given to the states to establish the legal framework of the relations between black people and white people.

> Racial segregation : terrible socio-economic and political status of the former enslaved people&raquo_space; rise of KKK

end in 1877
> 1st American republic was torn apart by the issue of slavery and destroyed by the civil war&raquo_space; 2nd version of the republic
> a “second birth” of the US into a nation

BUT
> Really not the end of hardships for African Americans, especially in the Old South
- economic reasons
- legal reasons : Jim Crow Laws : institutionalized segregation
- cultural reasons : enduring racism, hard to deconstruct the otherness and “inferiority”

> > The struggle kept going on : progressive abolition throughout the end of XIX and XX

Question 13

Diplomacy

Answer 13

Great Britain and France :
– Debates and division in both countries
– Napoleon III : “two USA” would facilitate his ambitions in Mexico = rather in favor of the Confederacy
– No French move without Britain
At first no real diplo decision and trade w confederacy amap

Question 14

casualties

Answer 14

– 360,000 dead in the Union Army = nearly 1 man out of 6
– 260,000 dead in the Confederate Army = nearly 1 man out of 3,5