Factors That Helped the North Win The Civil War

Why the North Won the Civil War
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There are several factors that can help to win a war. In addition to the factors, it can also call for a sheer stroke of luck for any individual or group to win. For the North, these two intersected. Overcoming a war therefore requires several qualities including economic stability, improved weapons and above all better strategies to adhere to during the war for both short and long-term goals. The book Why the North won the Civil War by David Herbert Donald, has a theme that revolves around how a war is won with major focus on the North’s victory during the civil war. It has a collection of arguments that revolve around the military, diplomatic prowess, socioeconomic and political strength, as well as organization of the two warring sides. The Civil War itself was fueled by a number of things, with the main one being the abolition of slavery, which the South greatly opposed due to their vast agricultural plantations that were tended to by the slaves. There are some of the elements as stated Donald’s collection and analysis in the book that helped the North to triumph the South in the Civil War.
Manufacturing Capacity
It only requires a common knowledge for anyone to understand that winning war is easier when using improved weapon compared traditional ones. The Civil War in the United States on the other hand took place when industrial revolution had taken over the country and most of its strength was being felt on the Northern side. This factor therefore meant that the Northern side was more advanced in terms of industrialization compared to the South hence the existence of improved weapons. According to Tindall and Sha (2016), early industrialization kept the Northern in advance position of manufacturing advanced weapons, which in return gave them the advantage over their opponents in the Civil War.
Economic Strength
The North was basically economically superior to the South by far. To make matters worse, during the course of the war, the destruction of agricultural lands in the South made it even weaker economically (Donald, 2015). In relation to industrialization, the Northern side experienced a stronger economy compared to the South and with good economy; they had an edge over their opponents. Some of the factors that ensured that the Northern economy remained sustainable besides industrialization included population and economic diversity among other things. For instance, the Northern area had an average population of 22 million compared to the 9 million of the South.
Perhaps this can explain why most of the wealth in the United States was established in the Northern part including the banks. With higher population and industrialization, the economy of the North was boosted courtesy taxes and other revenues, which were return be used in supporting the army. On the other hand, unlike the Southern confederates, which primarily depended on cotton farming and exportation, the Northern area experience diverse economic activities most of it involving exportation to the international market (Donald, 2015).
Transport Infrastructure
Transport is a key issue during war. This is because besides just sustaining the economy by creating efficiency in tr...