Custom «Why the North Victorious in the Civil War» Essay Paper Sample

American Civil War is one historical feature in the history of the world's greatest nation. Starting from around 1860 and lasting for five year with casualties totaling to over 60,000 dead, it brought about end of slavery and a rebirth of a new nation. The North won due to its aggregate advantage over the South in spite of each possessing different strengths and weaknesses (McPherson, 1988).

The established government of the North was by itself a starting advantage towards the commencement of the war. Considering that both parties were unprepared during the onset of the war, the North states had better grounds in organizing themselves than their fellows in the South.

The North was undergoing industrial revolution and most of nation's industries and infrastructure were based on the North. They also controlled two thirds of the nation's transportation system. The South was rich in agricultural activities and Slavery. The North had, therefore, the ability to produce weapons to fight a prolonged modern war (McPherson, 1992). Although, the South was agricultural, it mostly produced cash crops like cotton and sugarcane. In the contrary, more of the nation's food crops were in the North. This provided citizens and the armies with food enough to sustain them during the war. Starvation in the South brought about people leaving the war to finding employment and food from industries in the North. This weakened the armies of the South (McPherson, 1988).

Despite the fact that the South was equipped with highly trained military personnel, the population of the North was almost triple as much as of the South. Their attrition strategy worked in prolonging the war with a view of slowly corroding the armies of the North and it took years for the Union to device strategies to defeat the Confederate which included destroying their institutions of slavery and economic infrastructure (Wheeler, 1994).