Name: Mauricio A.

Rosales Golden West College ID: C02703502

Fall Semester 2017

History 170 MW

FINAL EXAM: Civil War Assignment

 Causes that lead to the Civil War

West Land Compromise.

The western Frontier was a big issue during the American expansion

period due to the fact of the union being polarized betwixt two different

economic lifestyle, the northern waged labor and the southerner forced

labor. The issues started with the acceptance of Missouri as an Slave state,

that led to the Missouri compromise and it constantly change with other

Compromise as the one of 1850 and the Nebraska-Kansas Act. One of the

most prominent figure is Henry Clay, a National republican who was

Against the interest of the Democratic party and served as mediator for the

Missouri compromise against Tallmadge and his amendment. Also, he was

one of the Central figures in the Compromise of 1850, which was opposed

by John Calhoun. Even though It was a large debate that divide the

Congress, at the end the compromise passed.

The Westward Expansion was one of the most important issues due to the

fact that it wasn’t all about slavery, but about political power, that at the end

tried to rule the economy of the time. The major issue in the west was that

with more plantation-based states, the south won more supporters that

vetoed laws related to industrialization. The series of compromise tend to

nullify the previous one, but at the same time tried to blend them together,

everything with its culmination in the Nebraska-Kansas Act that nullify the

Compromise in called for Popular Decision for the states. I think events as

the Bleeding Kansas and the Nebraska Kansas Act would have been

avoided by respecting the Missouri Compromise land and Dividing

California in to separates states.

The Nullification Question.

The Nullification Crisis rose in 1832 when the Vice-president John Calhoun

Challenged the President Andrew Jackson over the Tariff acts of 1828 and

1832, which favorized the industrial and manufacturing interests of the

north, over the agricultural economy of the south, which is why South

Carolina declared the tariff decree unconstitutional. The Federal Congress

passed a law known as Force Hill as a reply, which authorized President

Jackson the use of force to enforce federal laws, so the president sent a

force of naval ships to the port of Charleston. Thus, South Carolina revoked

the law of nullity.

The Nullification Crisis, is quite interesting due to the fact that the

mechanism of nullify a law is used even nowadays, which states as

California that decide not to follow a Federal Law, but at the same time this

lead to a misunderstanding of the law and the political order in the way that

one doesn’t know who is above who, the state or the Central Government,

and make the government weak and open to different situation such as

secession or disobedience of the political rule.

 Consequences of the Civil War

Jefferson Davis

Jefferson Finnis Davis was an American politician born in 1808 in Fairview

Kentucky. He was a member of the Democratic Party, serving mainly as

Senator for Mississippi and Representative as well. He graduated as a

military officer at the West Point Academy, he fought in campaigns against

the Indians and in the war against Mexico in 1846-48. After Marrying a

daughter of the former president Zachary Taylor, he stablished himself as a

cotton planter in the Mississippi. When the war began, he was elected as

president due to his prestige as a man full and equitable, but, overcome by

the task of building a new state while maintaining a war against an enemy

with a bigger amount of resources than their owns, he failed in all his

political objectives: first to try a negotiated solution with President Lincoln,

then to attract the support of France and Great Britain, at all times to

maintain political unity on the southern side, caught in the contradiction

between the principle of autonomy of states and the need to create a

centralized administration for the sake of efficiency in both the War and the

Economy, and even failed to maintain its popularity among the population,

resentful of the introduction of compulsory military service and other

policies needed for the keeping of the civil war. After the War and being

held in prison for to years, he was invited to stay at the house of the

American novelist Sarah Dorsey, where he finished his life writing about the

South and the Confederate Government.

At the begging I wasn’t peculiarly attracted to the whole life of Jefferson

Davis, being representative of the State of Mississippi and a Veteran of the

War of Mexico, adding his inefficiency to keep a good relationship with his

officer and people in general. It seems to me unsuited for the office as

president of the Confederation, but after the war, he capture my attention

as he get focused in the south integration to the union and the further

expansion of the US interest into South America, He prayed for a good

economic relationship with those countries. Overall he help in the

reconstruction era as a light of stability that try to represent the best he can

the interest of the southern States and, at the same time, the Reason for

the Union to be as a Single Country Together.

The Battle of First Bull Run.

The First battle of Manassas (also known as the First Bull Run) was one of

the earlier mayor engagements during the civil war. It was fought July 21 th

1861, when the attacking union forces of 28,500 men led by General

McDowell engaged the opposing confederate’s commanders, Joseph E.

Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard, with 32,230 men in three individual

offensives in order to isolate the Confederates Forces from possible

Reinforcement. The battle took a whole day, from Dawn to Sunset, at 6am

the battle began as a series of skirmishers of Tyler’s Division from the west

of the Stone bridge, at 11am Mc Dowell and the remaining of the Union

Forces arrive in Henry Hill, where Beauregard’s Forces, Bee and Bartow’s

divisions where trying to hold the Ground, but half an hour later the Union

Forces overwhelmed both Mathew Hill and Stone Bridge defenses with the

arrival of Sherman and his division, making the confederates fall back to

Henry Hill where they hold an even strong defenses waiting for the

reinforcements, which had trick the other commanders in the other

engagements and with the whole of the Confederate Forces together and
with the help of artillery fire, at 5pm the began the counterattack and it

ended up with the total rout of the Union Forces.

In the end this battle was a major inflection point of the whole war, being

the point where the war could just end for the winning side whoever it was.

For the Union Forces, winning would have meant a free path to Richmond

and the Unconditional surrender of the Confederation. In the other hand,

Although the Confederates won, they didn’t have the organization needed

to attack a weakened Washington that would have given them a big score

on the war and a possible surrender from the Whole Union Army. The most

important aspect of the battle was the use of spies to secure the victory of

the south, this technique is used in almost all the campaign to forecast the

enemy movements and tactics and so win an advantage in the battlefield.