Question

History question: Know the Northen and southern plans to win the American Civil war.

Can someone briefly explain this for me thank you.

Answer 1

The Northern and Southern states employed different strategies that lead up to the Civil War and affected the results of the war. The Northern states attempt to prevent the Southerners from getting access to resources they required for the war. To accomplish this, they shut down the ports along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. This prevented the South from shipping their cotton to Europe. The Northerners also took over the Mississippi River with the aim of dividing the confederacy in half, and strived to seize Richmond, the Southern capitol.

On the other hand, the South decided to wait for the North to attack first and prepared for the war in the meanwhile. They assumed that Europe would help them in exchange for cotton exports, however, Europe instead began to import cotton from India and Egypt. As a result, the Southerners were left with very little resources required to win the war and eventually lost.