Types of War
American Revolution: Fought as a Limited War meaning the primary objective was to overthrow Britain's political system and to be resolved by a treaty. Basically, the wealthy Americans did not want to pay the taxes Great Britain was levying upon them. The political structure did not change very much. The ability to run for office and vote still remained with the wealthy land owners.Civil War: Originally hoped to be fought as a Limited War, Lincoln came to realize the only way to save the state of the Union was to fight a Total War. A war in which the objective was to conquer and destroy the enemy became the outcome's objective.
SlaveryNeither war was fought based on the primary focus of slavery. An interesting note is that Lincoln, known as the "Great Emancipator", initially only wished to preserve the Free States, not to abolish slavery. By not having slaves, the South would not have the resources to continue to support the war and would crush their socioeconomic structure. The Revolutionary War was fought against friends and neighbors based on their allegiance to the King. A two party system was put in place, and the 13th, 14th, and post-war the 15th amendments were passed that abolished slavery, granted citizenship to all persons born in America, and gave every male citizen the right to vote and be elected. The North in turn allowed the freed men to enlist and fight for the North. Only during his political platform for his reelection did he proclaim freedom for every man when he realized it was necessary to win a Total War against the South. The Constitution, which came about because of the victory in the Revolutionary War, did very little to address slavery other than to consider slaves property and provide cause for a slow emancipation of slaves by exercising a tax on them to begin in 1808. n consider both wars revolutionary and civil in their definition. People that fought side by side in the French and Indian War were now pitted against each other during the Revolutionary War. The Civil War only became an issue to concern slavery when Lincoln realized that to win the war and achieve the primary objective of preserving the union was to abolish slavery which in turn would debilitate the South's ability to support the war. While he felt that every person should be free, he was not willing at first to compromise his objective of preserving the Union by issuing a proclamation to emancipate the slaves at the onset of the war. The Civil War brought about much more change in the political structure than the Revolutionary War.
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