Thursday, October 22, 2009

Civil War Changes a Nation

The civil war caused many changes throughout the U.S. It gbreatly increased the governments power and authority. Economically, the war widened the gap between north and south. The north's economy boomed while the south's collapsed. The civil war was also considered to be the first modern war, with a destructive weapon in the rifle. With the thirteenth amendment, it freed all slaves unlike the Emancipation Proclamation freed only the slaves in the states that were behind Confederate lines, and not yet under Union control. The government didn't know what to do, so the presidet hhad to go with the thirteenth amendment. The civil war resulted in 360,000 union soldier deaths and 260,000 confederate soldier deaths. The union war cost 2.3 billion dollars, compared to the confederate costing 1 billion. Inflation increased to 184% for the union, and 7000% for the confederacy.