What+caused+the+Civil+War?+KH

During the mid-1800s the North and South were dividing more rapidly with each passing year. Although the government tried to resolve the rising tension between the two regions, the compromises and acts that were passed in atttempt to cool tempers only extended the conflict that was bound to erupt. A series of events took place that all contributed to the start of the Civil War, an event that particularly stuck out amoung the rest was the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854.

The Kansas-Nebraska territories were up for grabs in terms of slave or free states. California was previously admitted as a free state, therefore tipping the Senate in favor of the North. The South then felt that these states should be slave to regain the balance betwen North and South. The North also felt that they had just has much right to the land that the South did. People from both regions flocked to this territory in order to commence hostilities. Residents from both the North and the South settled in this territory and fighting between the two groups started.

The fighting that went on in this territory between the pro-slavery people and the Free Soilers became known as "Bleeding Kansas." All of this fighting was a result of popular sovereignty. Popular sovereignty means that the power is in the hands of the people. They could utilize this power by voting. But pre-voting, there were violent skirmishes that went on between the groups of people. This is where the bleeding part of "Bleeding Kansas" comes from.

Among these people migrating to this region were border ruffians. Unlike the others, they were there to VOTE for the territory to become a slave state. Most of these migrants were from Missouri, a slave state. They migrated to this region in order to ensure Kansas-Nebraska in becoming a slave state. Popular sovereignty was originally created to enable the people to decide for themselves by VOTING, not by using violence.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act was the leading cause of the Civil War because the creation of popular sovereignty and the fighting that it lead to, were the final straws in the eyes of the North and South. The Kansas-Nebraska act was the kick off to the future fighting that was bound to take place in the form of the Civil War.