- Political
- Acts/Declarations/compromises on boundaries and territories of states and land
- Decisions on whether new states should be declared a slave state or a free state when entered into the Union
- Slaves, particularly Dred Scott, suing and challenging the court for their rights and freedoms
- Economic
- The north was very industrialized whereas the South relied mainly on slave labor for agriculture
- The wealth of southern families and plantations
- Social Reasons
- Slavery in the South
- When Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote her novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, which cause further controversy on the issue of slavery
- The north had a far more diverse population in terms of race, nationality, and religion
- The Underground Railroad
- Triggering Event
The main triggering event that caused the civil war was Abraham Lincoln's presidential election in 1860. Although in the Republican party, his anti-slavery views concerned the southerners. When he was elected, he had little to none support from the southern states. Once he was elected, states like South Carolina and a few others, seceded from the Union. He was also the one to officially declare war on the South.