I know this is Waaaaaaaaaaaay off topic, but I gotsta know...

[Paladin UK]

I know this is Waaaaaaaaaaaay off topic, but I gotsta know...

1.What event actually started the American Civil War

2. What is the Mason Dixon line.
Paladin (What needs ta know  ) UK

[rebsr52339]

The physical conflict was most probably the firing on Ft Sumpter in Charleston harbor.

The Mason Dixon line was the cultural difference between the northeastern british colonies and the southern colonies. It involved a border dispute which settled the boundaries between Penn., Md, Del and WV. in 1763 and 1767. This happened shortly after the French and Indian war, the first, First world war.

[Mako]

1. The election of Abraham Lincoln was the final tipping point.  There were many things leading up to the seceding of the Southern States from the union.  The primary cause was States rights in which the South had always been a "red headed step child".  The South also feared adding non-Southern aligned states to the union would dilute any influence they had and laws which affected the commerce (including slave ownership) within the states would put the non-industrialized South at even further disadvantage.  The Union was expanding and they were being given short shrift.  Abraham Lincoln and the policies he campaigned on cemented the fears the South had.  

Carl von Clausewitz stated that "war is the continuation of politics by other means."  In this case it directly applies.  The war (or the war to stop the secession) actually began with the election of Lincoln.

2.  The Mason Dixon line is actually a surveryed boundary that partially delimited West Virginia (which at the time was part of Virginia), Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware.  It was at this point the lines between the slave holding states and the North Eastern States was made.  This was a compromise when Missouri was added and became a point of contention and a symbolic line marking a point in time the South feared they would lose the concessions made to them during the original Constitutional Conventions.  Federalism was put in place to give the less populated Southern States protection.  In the original constitution the Senators were elected by the state legislature instead of at large elections like they are now (17th amendment in 1913).  This kept half of the legislature answering to the States governments.  The House was set up to provide district by district representation of the public.

In short the Mason Dixon line is the demarcation between the demon yankees (   I say that tongue in cheek having relatives who fought on both sides) and the Confederate Sates of America.

~Mako

[Cemetery]

If you listen to the revisionists, it's all about slavery and how the South wanted to keep it. 

End of story.

Any other reasons are pure bunk.

[Cuts Crooked]

If we had a political board I would move this topic to it since it has the potential to ignite. Since we don't have a political board I'm gonna lock it instead.