"War is the manifestation of miscalculations." - Barbara Tuchman Lasting from 1861 to 1865, the Civil War is considered the bloodiest war in American history. However, the civil war seemed to be a long time coming. In the fifteen years preceding the Civil War, many events occurred that heralded the secession of seven “cotton states” from the Union. The end of the Mexican-American War in 1848, the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852, the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, the Dred Scott decision of 1857, John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859, and the outcome of presidential process. The 1860 elections all helped contribute to the secession of the South and the start of the Civil War; each caused conditions that strengthened the abolitionist cause, strengthened the pro-slavery cause, or respectively strengthened both causes; although conditions made many Southerners want to leave the United States, Northerners were adamant about going to war to preserve the Union. After winning the Mexican-American War in 1848, the United States conquered the western territories, which included modern-day California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, as well as parts of Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma. However, with the addition of these new territories, controversial topics arose, which helped cause the civil war. The people of the United States first wanted to know whether the new territories would be admitted as free states or as slave states. To avoid conflict between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North, Henry Clay (Whig) and Stephen Douglas (Democrat) drafted the Compromise of 1850. Although the compromise was created to stop conflict..... . at the heart of the document......om's Cabin in 1852, the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, the Dred Scott decision of 1857, John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859, and the outcome of the presidential election of 1860— created conditions in which Southerners felt the need to secede from the United States (they felt their “way of life” was threatened), as well as created conditions in which Northerners decided to go to war against the Southern Confederacy to maintain the Union. It is not surprising, however, that civil war broke out; Since the Industrial Revolution, the Industrial North has always been different from the Agricultural South. If each region had paid more attention to resolving the issues that separated them, instead of trying to prove themselves right, they could have stopped the bloodiest battle in American history (although that's using hindsight knowledge).).