Ten Minute History - Westward Expansion and the American Civil War (Short Documentary)

18:45 in North America looks like this it was divided between the United States the Republic of Mexico the British Empire and finally the Republic of Texas in 1846 after a decade of indecision the United States annexed Texas which upset the Mexicans this was because Texas had itself seceded from Mexico and the two also claimed the same land which now meant that the claims of Texas were the claims of the USA President James K Polk sent troops to the disputed Mexican US border and as he had hoped fighting broke out which meant war Mexico surrendered after the u.s. occupied its capital Mexico City in the subsequent 1848 peace treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Mexico ceded all of this territory in the same year the United States and Britain came to an agreement over the disputed northern territories and settled on this so within only four years the United States had grown from this to this and it was spurred on by the idea of manifest destiny this was the argument that the United States was willed by God and destined to spread westward and control all of this territory before making it fundamentally American all of this new territory was not necessarily a good thing though so America at this point was economically socially and politically divided North versus South urban versus rural slave state versus free state and federal versus state government the North was much more urbanized industrialized and for the most part had outlawed the practice of slavery many in the North sources of barbaric practice a sentiment reinforced by its high rate of European migration whom for the most part came from nations which had already outlawed its practice the South was much more rural with a greater focus on labor intensive agriculture which meant that slavery was economically valuable and had to become a fact of life there those who held slaves there also believed that slavery was simply the natural order of things the reason that the US had previously hesitated on the annexation of Texas was due to these internal tensions over slavery in the US Senate each state held the same number of senators and within the Senate there was a balance between the states which allowed slavery in those which had abolished it Texas was a slave state and so the balance was upset which led to fist debates over what should happen with the new territories and how they can be used to address this imbalance there were many in the u.s. who were fiercely opposed to slavery and thus didn't want any more slave states in the Union one example was David Wilmot who tabled the Wilmot Proviso which was supposed to ban any territories acquired from Mexico from permitting slavery but he got nowhere on the opposite side senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi argued that the new territory should be comprised of slave state and that furthermore they should annex Cuba slightly more middle-of-the-road was Stephen Douglas who argued for what was called popular sovereignty meaning that new states should be allowed to decide for themselves these arguments culminated in the compromise of 1850 which gave statehood to California as a free state allowed the New Territories in the south to decide whether or not they wanted to allow slavery and importantly it implemented a new and very controversial Fugitive Slave Law this required anyone in any state even if a had abolished slavery to Hambach escaped slaves to their masters what this meant was that the North had to actively play a role in maintaining slavery which was not something that they could abide also as a side note in 1853 the US purchased this land of her Mexico thus completing its modern-day contiguous borders throughout the 1850s anti-slavery sentiment called abolitionism grew throughout the north with men like New York Governor and later Senator William Seward in the much more extreme John Brown being outspoken critics of slavery in 1854 the kansas-nebraska Act opened up large-scale settlement of migration to those states whose position on slavery would be decided by popular sovereignty thus proponents and opponents to slavery flooded into Kansas to aid their side in the debate this resulted in what is known as Bleeding Kansas where by both sides they're attacked and sometimes killed the other further raising tensions in the nation 1856 or the pro-slavery incumbent President James Buchanan of the Democratic Party run for re-election he won but this election is important because he ran against a brand-new party the anti-slavery Republican Party which for the most part dominated in the north the next year 1857 saw a very important ruling by the Supreme Court in what's called the Dred Scott case this was where Dred Scott a slave was taken by his master to Illinois a free state Scott argued that being in a free statement that he was by law free the court wrote no and further declared that black people were not intended to be US citizens at all and by extension they had no rights worth protecting needless to say this was a very controversial ruling and further raise tensions between Pro and anti-slavery factions 1858 so the Republicans attempt a challenge Stephen Douglas for his seat by putting some chap could Abraham Lincoln up against him Douglass defeated Lincoln but both had taken part in his series of debate which has made Lincoln well known across the country and cemented him as a leading abolitionist fortunately after this tensions between the north and the south between Pro and anti-slavery factions died down and by died down I mean got considerably worse the fear abolitionist John Brown launched a raid on Harpers Ferry Arsenal this was supposed to cease weapons from the government and give them to slaves to incite revolt it didn't work Brown was defeated captured and later hanged both North and South were now in a state of mutual hatred and there was talk in the south of secession in 1860 things got worse the Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln as their presidential candidate in the Democratic Party was divided in the south they nominated current vice president John Breckinridge and in the north they chose Stephen Douglas the vote was split Lincoln won and since Lincoln was an abolitionist many in the South feared what he would do next Lincoln was actually pretty moderate and pledged not to interfere with slavery in existing state but the damage was already done before Lincoln had even taken office South Carolina had declared itself to have seceded from the United States within a couple of months these states had joined them this also included Texas who had been in the Union for like five minutes at this point these states then went on to form the Confederate States of America under the presidency of Jefferson Davis during the early months of 1861 South Carolina had demanded that since they were independent federal troops should evacuate the federal government refused to maintain their garrison at Fort Sumter on April the 12th 1861 the Confederate States Navy were part of the fortune captured the next day thereby beginning the American Civil War by July these states had also joined the Confederacy and thus will also award the United States so before discussing the war itself it's important to discuss how both sides saw the conflict both sides referred to the Declaration of Independence to justify their fight the north also called the Union cited the all men are created equal bit whereas the Confederacy focused on the right to alter or abolish on just government's bit the Union claimed that slavery helped the entire nation back and prevented the south from industrializing and modernizing they also argued that owning another human being was you know wrong the Confederacy claimed that the north was barely even American anymore with all those immigrants there and so it wasn't for those who lived there to tell them what to do they also argued that it was their right to form a better Union since as far as they were concerned the current Union did nothing to protect their enshrined rights to property that property being slaves so in terms of strengths and weaknesses the Union held massive advantages it was more industrialized had many more miles of railways and telegraph lines and had a much larger economy it also had a population of 22 million versus the south 9 million of which three and a half million were slave and thus not likely to fight all of these things considered it would seem inevitable that the Union would crush the Confederacy quickly but when the two sides first clashed at the First Battle of Bull Run the Confederates won this was because they had many competent generals the most notable of course being robert e lee the confederacy generally speaking also had much higher morale because it's much easy to convince men to fight for the homeland than it is to get them to fight for concepts such as Union and abolitionism the Confederacy also hoped to gain foreign support to which it primarily turned to Britain Britain was reliant on southern cotton imports and when the Union blockaded the South it meant the Britain's textile industry was severely disrupted so in late 1861 when the Union captured Confederate delegates on the way to Britain in what is called the Trent affair the British were furious since it wasn't for the u.s. to dictate who Britain could speak to Britain postured but after Lincoln released the diplomats tensions called and Britain then told said diplomats that they were on their own it was clear that the war would not be over quickly in 1862 played host to two important battles the first was the naval clash here at the Battle of Hampton Roads which is important because it was the first crush of ironclad warship the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia the Confederates had hoped to break the naval blockade but failed after this came the Battle of Antietam which despite the Union having twice as many men was a stalemate but given that the Union didn't lose this battle ax gave Lincoln the opportunity to issue a warning that unless the Confederate states surrendered by the end of the year he would abolish slavery the Confederacy of course did not do that and on the 1st of January 1863 Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which abolished slavery throughout the states of the Confederacy but not in those still in the Union which incidentally now included West Virginia which had itself split from Virginia Lincoln couldn't unilaterally abolish slavery everywhere since he needed the permission of the states to do so since the South was in revolt they didn't have any legislators whom the Union recognized so Lincoln could do it on his own the Emancipation did shift the framing of the war from one of maintaining the Union to one of ending slavery this made Britain and France his office of mediation that hypocritical since they had already abolished slavery themselves so 1863 also saw the war's most famous battle the Battle of Gettysburg which saw Lee attempt to bring the horrors of war to the north but he was defeated and subsequently ran away this battle was seen as a bit of a turning point and when Lincoln won re-election the next year in a platform of I'm going to crush them it became clear that only total victory would do the Union blockade was taking its toll on the soon after the loss of Atlanta to General William Sherman it became clear that the Confederacy was going to lose and on April the 9th 1865 at the Appomattox Courthouse General Lee surrendered to grant effectively ending the Civil War Jefferson Davis was soon after captured the South was occupied in the Union now had the difficult job of repairing the damage Lincoln was presumably very happy with this victory but wouldn't have long to enjoy it Lincoln took the time to go to the theater and a man could John Wilkes Booth a Confederate sympathizer took the time to kill him Andrew Johnson Lincoln's successor as president now had to create a piece that could heal a broken nation 1865 saw the passage of the 13th amendment which abolished slavery throughout the United States the primary cause of the Civil War was done away with and so began the process of healing a nation but of course that would take a long long time I hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for watching and a special thanks to James Bissonnette Thomas guest Strich Adam Harvey and Winston K wood if you'd like to learn more about the American Civil War there are some book recommendations in the description below you

Channel: History Matters

Views: 3,453,427

Keywords: Ten, Minute, History, 10, Animated, Short, Documentary, Education, Educational, America, American, France, Britain, Mexico, Civil, War, US, 1848, Westward, Expansion, Abraham, Lincoln, Buchanan, Taylor, 1850, Compromise, Cession, California, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, South Carolina, South, North, Gettysburg, Antietam, Davis, Jefferson, Emancipation, Booth, 1861, 1865, Sumter

Id: 9v5pY9300MQ

Length: 10min 0sec (600 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 17 2018