Notes for Origins of the Civil War - IB | RevisionDojo
Origins of the Civil War Notes
US Civil War
Economic and Social Differences Between North and South
The North developed a diverse, industrial economy based on manufacturing, trade, and wage labor, while the South remained agrarian, dependent on cotton exports and enslaved labor.
These differences created conflicting interests: the North favored protective tariffs to support industry, whereas the South opposed them, seeing tariffs as harmful to cotton exports and trade with Britain.
Industrialization in the North also fueled urbanization and immigration, while the South maintained a rigid plantation hierarchy, deepening cultural and social divides.
The Nullification Crisis was a confrontation between the state of South Carolina and the federal government that occurred from 1832 to 1833. It was triggered by the state's attempt to declare federal tariffs null and void within its borders, based on the legal theory of nullification championed by Vice President John C. Calhoun. The crisis highlighted growing sectional tensions over states' rights, federal authority, and economic policies that eventually contributed to the Civil War.
States’ Rights and the Nullification Crisis
The Nullification Crisis (1832–1833) was an early test of sectional conflict when South Carolina, led by John C. Calhoun, claimed the right to nullify federal tariffs it considered unconstitutional.
President Andrew Jackson rejected this claim, asserting federal supremacy, but the crisis revealed the growing Southern belief that states could override or secede from federal authority, a key argument used later to justify secession.
Case study
The Nullification Crisis (1832–1833)
When Congress passed the Tariff of 1828, known in the South as the “Tariff of Abominations,” Southern planters, especially in South Carolina, claimed it unfairly favored Northern industries.
John C. Calhoun, Vice President and leading Southern theorist, argued that states could nullify federal laws that violated their rights, citing the doctrine of states’ rights.
President Andrew Jackson opposed nullification, threatening to use federal troops to enforce the tariff and declaring that secession was treason.
Congress passed the Force Bill (1833) authorizing military action, but Henry Clay’s Compromise Tariff defused the crisis, temporarily preserving the Union.
The confrontation revealed two emerging worldviews: federal supremacy vs. state sovereignty, a fundamental constitutional divide that reemerged in the 1850s.
Although resolved peacefully, the Nullification Crisis set a dangerous precedent, proving that southern states were willing to defy federal law to protect regional interests, paving the way toward secession three decades later.
Sectionalism and Slavery
The westward expansion of the United States reignited debates over whether new territories would allow slavery, producing repeated compromises such as the Missouri Compromise (1820), the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas–Nebraska Act (1854).
Sectionalism intensified as each side saw its identity and future threatened. Southerners feared abolition would destroy their economy, while Northerners increasingly viewed slavery as morally wrong and politically corrupting.
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The economic and social differences between the North and South were fundamental to the growing tensions that eventually led to the Civil War. The North developed a diverse, industrial economy based on manufacturing, trade, and wage labor, while the South remained agrarian, dependent on cotton exports and enslaved labor. These differences created conflicting interests: the North favored protective tariffs to support industry, whereas the South opposed them, seeing tariffs as harmful to cotton exports and trade with Britain. Industrialization in the North also fueled urbanization and immigration, while the South maintained a rigid plantation hierarchy, deepening cultural and social divides.
