Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War (original) (raw)

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This timeline of events leading to the American Civil War is a chronologically ordered list of events and issues that historians recognize as origins and causes of the American Civil War. These events are roughly divided into two periods: the first encompasses the gradual build-up over many decades of the numerous social, economic, and political issues that ultimately contributed to the war's outbreak, and the second encompasses the five-month span following the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States in 1860 and culminating in the capture of Fort Sumter in April 1861. Scholars have identified many different causes for the war. Among the most polarizing of the underlying issues from which the proximate causes developed was whether the institution of slavery should be retained and even expanded to other territories or whether it should be contained, which would lead to its ultimate extinction. Since the early colonial period, slavery had played a major role in the socioeconomic system of British America and was widespread in the Thirteen Colonies at the time of the American Declaration of Independence in 1776. During and after the American Revolution, events and statements by politicians and others brought forth differences, tensions and divisions between citizens of the slave states of the Southern United States and citizens of the free states of the Northern United States (including several newly admitted Western states) over the topics of slavery. In the many decades between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, such divisions became increasingly irreconcilable and contentious. Events in the 1850s culminated with the election of the anti-slavery Republican Abraham Lincoln as president on November 6, 1860. This provoked the first round of state secession as leaders of the cotton states of the Deep South were unwilling to remain in what they perceived as a second-class political status, with their way of life now threatened by the President himself. Initially, seven states seceded: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas. After the Confederates attacked and captured Fort Sumter, President Lincoln called for volunteers to march south and suppress the rebellion. This pushed four other states in the Upper South (Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas) also to secede, completing the incorporation of the Confederate States of America by July 1861. Their contributions of territory and soldiers to the Confederacy ensured, in retrospect, that the war would be prolonged and bloody. (en)
La cronologia degli eventi principali precedenti la guerra di secessione americana riporta i principali eventi generalmente riconosciuti dagli storici contemporanei come cause della guerra di secessione americana. Il ritratto del cuoco nero del presidente George Washington in un dipinto di Gilbert Stuart (1795-1797 circa). Tali eventi possono essere divisi in due periodi: il primo, molto lungo, in cui si accumularono le tensioni, e un secondo coincidente con i cinque mesi trascorsi dalla vittoria di Abraham Lincoln e del neonato Partito Repubblicano alle elezioni presidenziali del 1860, alla battaglia di Fort Sumter dell'aprile seguente. , lo schiavo-artigiano adottato dal presidente Thomas Jefferson, qui ritratto nel 1845 circa. Sin dai tempi della Colonia della Virginia (1607-1776) la schiavitù risultò parte integrante del sistema socio-economico del Nord America Britannico anche se non venne mai citata nella Dichiarazione d'indipendenza degli Stati Uniti d'America. Da allora eventi e dichiarazioni politiche sullo schiavismo misero in luce differenze, tensioni e divisioni tra gli Stati Uniti meridionali schiavisti e gli Stati Uniti d'America nord-orientali e i nuovi Stati dell'ovest, sostenitori della libertà individuale. Gli eventi degli anni 1850 culminarono con l'elezione di Abraham Lincoln, contrario alla schiavitù, a presidente degli Stati Uniti il 6 novembre 1860; ciò fece precipitare la situazione con la prima serie di dichiarazioni di secessione. Furono sette Stati sudisti, con le economie basate in prevalenza sulla coltivazione ed esportazione del cotone (con una forte domanda europea e i prezzi in aumento) a separarsi: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Carolina del Sud e Texas. Dopo che le truppe dell'esercito confederato sudista attaccarono e catturarono Fort Sumter, una guarnigione dell'esercito unionista a Charleston, in Carolina del Sud, il presidente Lincoln chiese all'esercito di marciare verso Sud per reprimere la ribellione in atto. Ciò spinse i rimanenti quattro Stati del "Sud superiore" (Virginia, Carolina del Nord, Tennessee ed Arkansas) a ritirarsi dall'Unione; assieme, questi undici Stati formarono gli Stati Confederati d'America. Era l'inizio di una guerra civile che si preannunciava lunga e sanguinosa, a causa della consistenza territoriale e militare degli Stati secessionisti. (it)

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Dred Scott, a slave, who unsuccessfully sued for his freedom as a result of an 1857 Supreme Court decision, which angered Northern anti-slavery forces, escalated tensions and led to secession and war (en)

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General info (en)
Important events and people (en)

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Events leading to the American Civil War (en)

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This timeline of events leading to the American Civil War is a chronologically ordered list of events and issues that historians recognize as origins and causes of the American Civil War. These events are roughly divided into two periods: the first encompasses the gradual build-up over many decades of the numerous social, economic, and political issues that ultimately contributed to the war's outbreak, and the second encompasses the five-month span following the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States in 1860 and culminating in the capture of Fort Sumter in April 1861. (en)
La cronologia degli eventi principali precedenti la guerra di secessione americana riporta i principali eventi generalmente riconosciuti dagli storici contemporanei come cause della guerra di secessione americana. Il ritratto del cuoco nero del presidente George Washington in un dipinto di Gilbert Stuart (1795-1797 circa). , lo schiavo-artigiano adottato dal presidente Thomas Jefferson, qui ritratto nel 1845 circa. (it)

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