Readings: David Walker's Appeal
Points of Entry:
The Appeal online -
Revolutions of 1848 -
Abolitionist Movement -
Questions for Discussion:
What is the relationship between global events and the coming of the Civil War?
How did social reform movements shape the "great divergence?"
- The industrialization of Britain, France and Germany lead northern industrialists realize the importance of speeding up the efforts of their nation towards a mechanized and industrially based economy. The North contended that the institution of slavery retarded the nations effort to modernize and industrialize, since slaves were not trusted in urban environments which were home to the factories and workshops of the industrial era. Therefore, the northern industrialists campaigned to end slavery,thereby exacerbating sectional divisions and helping incite the Civil War.
ReplyDelete-The social movements of the "great divergence" had partly managed to dissolve the social and familial barriers that constrained non-western people's ability and incentive to pursue economic or political mobility. The Mughal Empire and Tokugawa Shogunate for example limited certain political offices and economic exploits to a select few people on the basis of birth-right. Europe and the United States dissolved the barriers of entrenched power and wealth to encourage the general populace to make greater efforts in their personal exploits, since they then had the chance of attaining higher offices or joining new social classes.
Before the Civil War broke out in the United States, there were a lot of events occurring throughout the rest of the world. Nations like the ones in Western Europe were industrializing at top rates. They were colonizing places like Asia, had many technological advacements in fields like weaponry, and were creating areas of influence throughout the world. This helped spark the Civil War, because the North was developing like Western Europe but the South was not. The North wanted to able to compete with the other world powers but the South was holding them back.
ReplyDeleteThe United States was one of the few countries that had somewhat of an inclusive electorate. All white men were given the right to vote. They also had the ability to social mobility. Most US citizens had the opportunity to go up the social ladder. Even the majority of the immigrants had these rights and privileges. Unlike, in countries like Japan and China where only natives had any rights at all. In Japan even ethnic Japanese did not have the ability to change social classes. That is why the US was able to reach the "great divergence" and emerge as a modern world power.
The relationship between global events and the occurence of the Civil War was one of modern superpowers of that time were rapidly giving up slavery such as Great Britian, France etc. Also the North was rapidly industiralizing unlike the South who's economy was based on raw material export which invetibably led to conflict on such issues as slavery.
ReplyDeleteSocial reform shaped the great the divergence by breaking down the class and economic barriers that were holding back the general populace in America this allowed for people of any economic background to achieve a higher amount of prosperity hence the "American Dream".
At the time their was alot going on in the world. Places like Asia were being colonized by European nations among other places. Slaves were thought of little more than animals at the time and they had no rights to speak of what so ever. Though with the use of slaves the industrial movement got sped up quite a bit because of the large labor force. This brought a divide in between the north and the south. The North wanted America to be a well respected nation and they thought the south was holding them back.
ReplyDeleteThe U.S allowed the people to climb up the social ladder to do greater things with their life. They were encouraged to reach a little bit higher with their life. Also all white men had a vote, therefore all of them were equal to one another. Though this may sound good at first, this did not apply to black people or even woman.
Just before the civil war it was clear that the North was much more similar to the rest of the Major countries in Europe. Europe had become incredibly industrialized and the North was catching up. There was one thing that was holding them back-the South. The South wished to continue in their ways. Besides refusing to industrialize, the South was also pro slavery. Unlike the North and the majority of countries in Europe slavery was becoming illegal. With these two main themes the Civil War was connected with global events.
ReplyDeleteDue a increasingly industrialized country there became many social issues that became more and more important. There were more factories and education however the conditions were not good. While white men were able to vote, women, blacks, and other minorities did not have many if not any rights. Due to this there where many social reform movements that attempted to reshape the country. The South had not many movements as the north however they were still present. These movements began to divide the country over very specific issues.
The Industrial Revolution in England (and especially the invention of the cotton gin) led the British to want all the cotton the South could grow to feed their textiles industry. This made pre-war Southerners wealthy but also led them to overestimate their power on the world scene. They thought Southern cotton was so important to the British that they would intervene against the North in a civil war. This was a miscalculation because the British never intervened and the South was not strong enough to defeat the North alone. Also the fact that European powers had pretty much condemned and stopped the slave trade put the South under even more pressure than they already had.
ReplyDeleteThe Industrial Revolution took hold of Europe and America before there was any social reform. Social reform was necessitated by the Industrial Revolution and followed it, not the other way around. Of course the continuing Industrial Revolution was then influenced by social reforms and this counts for Europe vs. Asia as much as for North vs. South. Industrialization meant urbanization (i.e. in the North). This broke up the traditional political power of rural landholders in favor of the cities. In the cities, poor living conditions forced social reforms which in turn allowed the Industrial Revolution to continue and not fall to a revolution.
The relationships between global events and the Civil War were the industrialization that was occurring during that time. Many more machinery was coming forth as the Civil War was nearing.
ReplyDeleteThe Social reform shaped the great divergence by breaking up the classes in the American society. With this done there was more of a chance for any kind of person to succeed in America, bot just the White men