Was the Civil War an inevitable conflict?
             The Civil War was an inevitable conflict that was bound to explode due to the differences between the North and South societies, slavery, and politics. After Independence, the complexity of the American society grew. The three components that contributed to this complexity was the shift away form small-scale, largely subsistence farming by substantial numbers of northerners; the migration of thousands of white Americans and black slaves, and the renewal of slavery as a viable economic system. Together, these triggered a sharpening conflict between economic interests, social classes and regions that were frequently manifested in party politics.
             During the first half of the nineteenth century, economic differences between the regions of the North and South increased. By 1830, cotton was the chief crop of the South, and it represented just over half of all U.S. exports. It continued to expand and by 1836, it represented nearly two thirds of all American exports (Enduring Visions, 244). The profitability of cotton completed the South's dependence on the plantation system and its essential component, slavery. The North was by then firmly established as an industrial society. Labor was needed, but not slave labor (Class Notes). Immigration was vital. Five million people migrated form Europe to the United States between 1790 and 1860, most of them to pursue economic opportunity. The immigrants worked in factories and built railroads of the north (Enduring Visions, 250-253). The south, resisting industrialization, manufactured little. Almost all manufactured goods had to be imported. Southerners therefore opposed high tariffs, or taxes that were placed on imported goods and increased the price of manufactured articles. The manufacturing economy of the North, on the other hand, demanded high tariffs to protect its own products from cheap foreign competition (Enduring Vision, 251...