What+caused+the+Civil+War?-Paulson

 The Civil War has many events that could be the catalyst for the split in the country, but one stands out. The attack on Fort Sumter by the Confederacy was the first attack of the war. After Fort Sumter, there was no chance of compromise and war became inevitable. It could also be said that "Bleeding Kansas" was the first battle of the war, but this is not the case for two reasons. For one, the South had not seceded yet. Therefore, it was not an attack on the United States' government. Second, the fight was over popular sovereignty which gave the state of Kansas to decide for itself whether slavery was legal there or not. Bleeding Kansas was not the first battle of the war, but it surely increased sectional tensions between the North and the South. The North viewed the secession of the southern states as illegal, and the attack on Fort Sumter an attack on the federal government by another separate country. The North was only sending "provisions" to the fort, ordered by president Lincoln. The Confederacy saw it as the U.S. giving the fort reinforcements, so they felt the need to attack before they were attacked. The genius of Lincoln is how he foresaw the Confederacy doing exactly this. This makes it so Confederates were the first to initiate fighting. Since it was an attack on the United States' federal authority, it had to be answered by the U.S. which started the Civil War. The increasing sectional tensions and the secession of the southern states all lead up to the attack on Fort Sumter. After Fort Sumter there was no chance of reconciliation and the war had begun, and Fort Sumter became a symbol for the Civil War.