The Inevitability of the Civil War
Make a discussion to Instructor’s Statement: In 1979, Emory Thomas, a noted “Southern” historian, authored a book entitled, “The Confederate Nation, 1861-1865”. In short summary, Thomas proves that the Confederate nation was indeed just that, a legitimate nation-state with those requisite elements recognized under the general rubric of international law. In the past previous textbook chapters, there has been exhaustive examination of the comparison between “North” and “South” and chapter 12 discusses the origins of the Civil War in that context of comparison. One can posit that the Civil War was all but inevitable, a struggle between two very well-defined definitions of the recognizable nation-state. In that framework, slavery plays but just one part of that struggle. One can argue that the struggle was more political in nature, therefore the consequential “compromises” for example. The slavery question is just a peripheral interpretation stemming from the 1960s issue regarding civil rights that had been brought into the area of ante-bellum America historiography. Thus, slavery was not the main issue but rather two competing political and economic systems which constituted separate nation-states. Thus, one can agree that the “inevitablity” of the Civil War was already foreseen and unavoidable.
