The US Civil War and Reconstruction: Revision Notes

Key question 1.4 in Cambridge IGCSE 0470 and O Level 2147 asks why the United States fought a civil war and what it changed. You need a secure 1820–77 timeline, a weighed answer on slavery as a cause, clear reasons for the North’s victory, and a judgement on Reconstruction. For the full explanation, use the US Civil War study guide.

Timeline to learn

Year	Event	Why it matters
1820	Missouri Compromise	Slave/free balance kept; slavery banned north of 36°30′
1831	Garrison’s The Liberator	Start of a radical abolitionist movement
1832–33	Nullification Crisis	South Carolina challenged federal tariffs: states’ rights
1850	Compromise of 1850	California free; tougher Fugitive Slave Act angers the North
1852	Uncle Tom’s Cabin	Spread anti-slavery feeling in the North
1854	Kansas–Nebraska Act	Popular sovereignty; “Bleeding Kansas”; Republican Party founded
1857	Dred Scott decision	Congress cannot ban slavery in the territories
1859	John Brown’s raid, Harpers Ferry	Southern fear of slave risings
Nov 1860	Lincoln elected	Won with no Southern state
Dec 1860	South Carolina secedes	Seven states form the Confederacy by Feb 1861
Apr 1861	Fort Sumter	War begins; eleven states in the Confederacy
1863	Emancipation Proclamation; Gettysburg and Vicksburg	Turning points
Apr 1865	Appomattox (9 April); Lincoln assassinated (14 April)	War ends
1865–70	13th, 14th, 15th Amendments	Freedom, citizenship, vote
1877	Compromise of 1877	Federal troops leave the South: Reconstruction ends

Causes: the weighing you need

• Slavery — the issue behind almost every crisis, above all its spread into the West.
• States’ rights — mainly the right to protect slavery.
• Economic differences — industrial North, cotton South; tariffs.
• Political breakdown — the Democrats split in 1860; the new Republican Party was purely Northern.
• Trigger — Lincoln’s election and the secession that followed.

Line of argument: slavery was the underlying cause; the other factors were largely expressions of it, and Lincoln’s election was the trigger.

Why the North won

Factor	Key detail
Population	About 22 million vs about 9 million (over a third enslaved)
Industry and railways	Most factories and track were in the North
Navy and blockade	“Anaconda Plan” choked Southern trade
Diplomacy	“King Cotton” failed; Britain and France never recognised the Confederacy
Emancipation	Changed war aims; about 180,000 Black soldiers joined the Union army
Leadership	Lincoln, Grant, Sherman (Atlanta, March to the Sea, 1864)

South’s strengths: defending its own ground; Lee and Jackson; high morale early on. They were not enough in a long war of resources.

Reconstruction: success or failure?

• Successes: slavery abolished (13th); citizenship and equal protection (14th); race no bar to voting (15th); Freedmen’s Bureau schools; Black office-holders such as Senator Hiram Revels.
• Failures: Black Codes; Ku Klux Klan violence; most freed people became sharecroppers with no land; Northern interest faded; troops withdrawn in 1877; voting rights later removed in practice.
• Politics: President Andrew Johnson against the Radical Republicans; Reconstruction Acts 1867; Johnson impeached 1868 and acquitted by one vote.

Key people

Person	Why they matter
Abraham Lincoln	Republican elected President in 1860; led the Union; Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
Jefferson Davis	President of the Confederacy
Robert E. Lee	Leading Confederate general; surrendered at Appomattox, April 1865
Ulysses S. Grant	Union general who won in the west and then wore down Lee in 1864–65
Frederick Douglass	Formerly enslaved abolitionist writer and speaker
John Brown	Abolitionist whose raid on Harpers Ferry (1859) alarmed the South
Harriet Beecher Stowe	Author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), which spread anti-slavery feeling in the North
Andrew Johnson	President after Lincoln’s assassination; clashed with Congress over Reconstruction

Naming the right person with the right date is one of the quickest ways to make a (b) explanation specific.

Advantages at the start of the war

North	South
About 22 million people	About 9 million, of whom about 3.5 million were enslaved
Most of the nation’s factories, iron and railways	Mainly agricultural; relied on cotton exports
A navy able to blockade Southern ports	Fighting a defensive war on home ground
An established federal government	Skilled generals such as Lee

Use the table to explain why the North won: its resources counted for more as the war became long.

Exam traps

• Writing “the war was about states’ rights” without saying states’ rights to do what.
• Dating the Emancipation Proclamation to 1865 — it took effect on 1 January 1863; the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in 1865.
• Saying the Proclamation freed every enslaved person — it applied to areas in rebellion, not to the loyal border states.
• Describing battles in order instead of explaining why the North won.
• Ending Reconstruction in 1865: it runs to 1877.

Frequently asked questions

What does “popular sovereignty” mean? Letting the settlers of a territory vote on whether to allow slavery, as in the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854.

Which states were the border states? Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri: slave states that stayed in the Union.

When did Reconstruction end? In 1877, when the last federal troops were withdrawn from the South after the disputed 1876 election.

Self-test

1. What did the Missouri Compromise decide?
2. Name two events of the 1850s that increased tension over slavery.
3. Why did Southern states secede after November 1860?
4. Give three reasons why the North won.
5. Name the three Reconstruction amendments and what each did.

Answers: 1. Missouri slave, Maine free, no slavery north of 36°30′ in the Louisiana Purchase. 2. Any two: Fugitive Slave Act (1850), Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), Kansas–Nebraska Act (1854), Dred Scott (1857), John Brown’s raid (1859). 3. Lincoln, opposed to slavery’s spread, won without Southern votes, so they believed slavery was doomed in the Union. 4. Any three from the table above. 5. 13th abolished slavery; 14th gave citizenship and equal protection; 15th banned racial bars to voting.

Practise next: US Civil War practice questions.