Causes of the Civil War
... hostility between the North and South began in the early 1800’s with the Missouri Compromise. The Missouri Compromise was an effort by Congress to end the crisis regarding the question of the addition or prohibition of slavery spreading in the West. During the 19th century, The North had its great agricultural resources, but was also expanding industrially. Whereas the South was almost completely agricultural, with an economy and a social order mainly based on slavery and the plantation system. Since the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney, cotton had come to be one of the largest institutions in the South, from which the South derived its wealth. Therefore, slaves had become a huge element to the southern economy. Due to decreasing populations in the South and overwhelming representation of the North in the House of Representatives, the south felt as though they were losing their “voice.” Moreover, if a...