Analyze growing antagonism between the North and the South. Examine the chief events of the Civil war, its consequences.

American life was characterized by a growing conflict between the Northern and Southern states. There were millions of black people who were slaves, they exceeded the whites in number. There was a growing rift between the free labour economy of the Northern states and the slave-based plantation economy of the South. In 1808 Congress outlawed the importation of slaves. In 1820,Southern and Northern politicians disputed the issue of whether slavery would be legal in the new western territories Missouri and the Arkansas territory, but it was banned everywhere west and north of Missouri.

Then the western expansion was furthered in 1848 when the USA settled a long-standing border dispute with Canada taking over the southern half of the Oregon Country. Thus America became a truly continental power, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. In 1850 California was admitted as a free state. Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act which permitted Southerners to recapture slaves who had escaped to the free states.

In 1854 the old issue of slavery in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska was renewed and the quarrel became more bitter. Under the terms of the Missouri Compromise of 1820,the entire region was closed to slavery. In 1857 the Supreme Court passed a decision which denied blacks the rights of American citizens and legalized slavery in the western territories. The country was dramatically moving towards Civil War.

The Republican Party was formed in 1854 as anti-slavery party. It united the industrialist of the North, the free farmers and many inhabitants of the towns. Abraham Lincoln became a leading figure in the party. In 1848 Lincoln was elected a member of Congress. And then in 1860 he won the popular vote and became president of the USA.

On March 4,1861 Abraham Lincoln was swarn in as president of the USA. In his inaugural address, he refused to recognize the secession and appealed to the South to restore the union. But the South turned deaf ears and on April 12 the Civil War(1861-1865) began when the Southerners opened fire on the Federal troops stationed at Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. A war had begun in which more Americans would die than in any other conflict before or since. The Northern Army had the support of the industrial north and the people who were against slavery. The main task were to keep the country together and to abolish slavery. On January 1,1863,he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which granted freedom to all slaves. The Southern army or the Confederates won some battles at the beginning of the war, but soon the situation changed. In the summer of 1863 their commander General Lee marched north into Pennsylvania. He met the Union army at Gettysburg, and the greatest battle on American territory took place. After three days of fighting the Confederates were defeated. The northern army took control of the Mississippi Valley and cut the Confederacy in two. In 1864,a Union army under General Sherman marched into the South winning many important victories. General Grant, who commanded another army of the North was also successful in Virginia against General Lee. On April 9,1865 General Lee surrendered to General Grand at Appomattox, and soon all the other forces of the South surrendered. The Civil War was over. It was the most dramatic war on the territory of the USA. America lost more soldiers in this war than in any other-635,000 killed on both sides. It put an end to slavery, which was abolished by the 13^th Amendment to the Constitution in 1965.It is also decided forever that the USA is a single united nation.

The victory of the North contributed to the further development of the United States. The country began to make great progress in the development of industry, trade, agriculture. More and more immigrants began to come to America. In the countryside the settlers could easily get land and start farming. Capitalism began to make rapid progress