American Civil War 1861 - 1865: Union Vs Confederate
The Civil War was the culmination of four decades of intense sectional conflict and reflected deep seated differences between the North and the South. Underscoring sectional differences, the labor force in the South included nearly four million enslaved blacks. Although the slaveholding planter class formed a small minority of the population, it dominated Southern politics and society. Slaves were the largest single investment in the South, and the fear of slave unrest ensured the loyalty of nonslaveholders. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 temporarily settled the issue by establishing a line separating free and slaves territory. Conflict resumed, when the United States boundaries were extended westward to the Pacific.

In 1850 California was admitted as a free state and Utah and New Mexico were added as two new territories. When the war ended 620,000 had been killed, and many more wounded. The war settled the question of the permanance of the Union. The war expanded the authority of the federal government. The U.S. Congress enacted much of the legislation to which the South had objected.

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