The most important event in the history of the United States is the 1861-1865 War of the North and South, the Civil War. In Russia, little is known about this event, for the majority it was "a war for the abolition of slavery in the South, for the freedom of black slaves, a battle with the damned slave owners." This message can be found both in textbooks on the history of modern and recent times for secondary schools, and in textbooks for high schools.
The fact is that this statement is contrary to reality. It is high time for him to go into the realm of anecdotes and historical myths. The reason for the secession (secession from the state of any part of it) of the Confederate States of America (CSA) was the election of President Abraham Lincoln. The southern clans considered him a protege of the bourgeoisie of the North and an illegal president.
In addition, it cannot be considered that it was only a war of the "capitalist" states against the "slaveholding" states; four "slaveholding" states remained on the side of the North: Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri and Maryland. It should be noted that Lincoln was not an ardent fighter against slavery, he said: “My main task in this struggle is to save the Union, and not to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing a single slave, I would do it, and if I had to free all the slaves to save it, I would also do it. " Lincoln did not advocate social and political equality of white and black. In his opinion, Negroes could not be given the right to vote, allowed to be juries in courts, hold any public office, allow mixed marriages with them, since there are huge physical differences between the two races that do not allow “to live together on the basis of social and political equality”.
There were many supporters of slavery in the North: from the poor, who were afraid of competition from the hundreds of thousands of blacks who got freedom, to lose their jobs, to some manufacturers (who used black labor in tobacco and cotton factories), bankers who received good interest from the slave trade and investments in it capital.
General Robert Lee, who led the army of the southerners, was against slavery and had no slaves. And in the family of General Grant (the most famous of the generals of the North), there were slaves before slavery was abolished. As part of the army of the South, entire units fought, which consisted of blacks, and they ceased to be slaves. And slavery in the South itself was tending to decline, becoming economically unprofitable, it seems to have been gradually abolished, but without the horrors of war and Reconstruction (when the southern states were simply occupied and plundered as conquered territories).
The main reasons for the war lay in the field of economics
In the North, in the period preceding the war, a powerful industry and banking sector was created. The open slave trade and slavery did not bring such fabulous profits as the exploitation of thousands and thousands of "free" people in terrible conditions. The northern clans needed millions of new workers for their businesses. And slaves in agriculture could be replaced by thousands of agricultural machines, increasing profitability. It is clear that in order to implement their global plans, the northern clans needed power over all the States.
Before the start of the war, the United States took fourth place in terms of industrial production, cruelly exploiting the "white slaves" - Poles, Germans, Irish, Swedes, etc. But the country's masters looked to the future, they needed first place. The discovery of the richest gold deposits in California in 1848 made it possible from 1850 to 1886 to produce more than one third of the world's production of this precious metal (until 1840, almost all gold came only from Russia). This was one of the factors that made it possible to launch the construction of a huge railway network. To prepare the country for the battle for leadership on the planet, it was necessary to resolve the issue with the South.
The southern planters were content with what they had. For agriculture, slave labor was also sufficient. In the south, tobacco, sugarcane, cotton and rice were grown. Raw materials from the South went to the North. In addition, the dispute revolved around the issue of a tax on imported goods: the North wanted to make them as high as possible in order to protect its industry with protectionist duties, and the South wanted to trade freely with other countries.
Thus, there was a clash between the old slave-owning elite, which was satisfied with the existing order, and the northern bourgeoisie, which saw the horizons of a new type of "democracy", where a change in the form of exploitation would bring even more profit. Nobody thought about the "good" for blacks.
Preparing for the fight
The famous war between the North and the South became a battle between two elites, and the so-called. "Citizens" - the white and liberated black poor, farmers, etc. - have become ordinary "cannon fodder". Moreover, for the majority of southerners (there was an insignificant minority of slave owners among them, for example, there were less than 0.5% of the population) it was a war for trampled independence, they considered themselves a nation in danger, loss of freedom.
Preparations for the war went on for quite a long time - the "public opinion" was being prepared. And I must say that this process was so successful that the opinion of the war "for the freedom of blacks" still dominates in the mass consciousness. Back in 1822, under the auspices of the American Colonization Society (an organization created in 1816) and other private American groups in Africa, a colony of "free people of color" was founded - in 1824 it was named Liberia. After that, a loud campaign "against oppression" began. She went not only in the press of the North, but also among the black slaves in the South. For a long time Negroes did not succumb to provocation, the majority did not want to go to Africa. But in the end, a wave of senseless Negro uprisings and riots swept across the South, they were brutally suppressed. The so-called. "Lynching", Negroes at the slightest suspicion were burned, hung, shot.
A large information campaign was carried out on the occasion of the attempt to seize the arsenal at Harpers Ferry by John Brown in 1859. He was an abolitionist - a supporter of the abolition of slavery. Inspired by the images of the Old Testament, where prophets and warriors did not retreat before the massacres "in the name of the Lord," this religious fanatic fought in Kansas (where the outbreak of the Civil War occurred in 1854-1858). There he "became famous" for the massacre in Potawatomi Creek. On May 24, 1856, Brown and his people knocked on the doors of the settlement's houses under the guise of lost travelers, and when they were opened, they broke into the houses, threw the men out into the street and literally chopped them to pieces. Brown wanted to organize a general uprising of the blacks. On October 16, 1859, he attempted to seize the government arsenal at Harpers Ferry (in present-day West Virginia), but the sabotage failed. Brown was hanged. They made a hero out of a fanatic and a murderer.
The organizers of the information campaign could be satisfied - the war could be started under "humane" slogans. The information war was won even before the hot war began. That is why the South remained isolated during the battle and could not get loans. During the Civil War of 1861-1865, the Russian Empire even sent two Russian squadrons to New York and San Francisco to provide moral support to the Northern States and show the world St. for example, Britain). In New York there was a squadron of Admiral Popov, and in San Francisco - of Admiral Lisovsky.
War and its results
The southerners skillfully maneuvered, inflicting a number of sensitive defeats on the northerners. General Robert Lee gained universal fame. But the preponderance in human, financial, military-industrial resources was on the side of the North - they could mobilize more people, deploy more guns. General of the northerners Ulysses Grant did not take into account the casualties at all. In the North, a general military service was introduced, they seized all combat-ready men, those who could not pay a ransom of $ 300. Violent recruitment and raids were carried out. All the white poor were thrown "cannon fodder." As a result, the North was able to bring its army to almost 3 million people against a million southerners. Many adventurers, adventurers, profit seekers, revolutionaries and romantics who fought for "freedom" came to the United States. In the army of the North, barrage detachments were used, they had to drive back the retreating soldiers, if the fleeing refused, they were shot, and only the wounded were allowed to pass.
As a result, the northerners won the war of attrition. The North won, as has already been said, and on the diplomatic front. After the war, according to the 13th Amendment of the Constitution (which banned slavery), Negroes received "freedom." They were simply kicked out of the barracks, huts, from the land of their owners-planters, deprived of even the little property that they had. The lucky ones were able to settle down as servants from their own former masters. At the same time, the United States passed a law that prohibited vagrancy. Thousands of people could not return to their former life and move around the country looking for work. The northerners planned to transfer masses of blacks to mines, mines, factories, and construction of railways. But in the end, a significant part of blacks found a "third way" - a wild rampant "black crime" began in the States, aggravated by the defeat of the southerners, the South was de facto an occupied territory, with all the ensuing consequences. In addition, many southerners died in battles, were placed in camps and could not protect their families.
In response, the whites created the Ku-Klux-Klan, the people's guards, and again a wave of "lynching ships" swept through. Mutual hatred and massacre created an atmosphere of a fully governed society, where the masters of the North carried out their measures to transform the States.
