The Civil War
According to one Swedish historian, there were only 235 days without any wars during the whole period of the human existence. People were always not satisfied with the conditions of their living, authorities, salaries and a lot of other things. It is our nature to long for the better life regardless of the current situation. Some people are afraid of the government and will never speak out, but others will stand up even without a good reason for that. It also depends on the mentality of the nation. Some ethnic groups used to be the slaves, and the docility runs in their blood. Other groups always lived in successful and democratic countries. And they will not endure any inconvenience and will demand changes.
Sometimes the only way out that they see is a war. According to James Fearon, a civil war is a war between organized groups within the same state or country. The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region or to change government policies (Fearon, 2007). Such civil wars usually broke up after a long-lasting cold conflict.
People lose their patience and start to use weapons, which results in the casualties. A lot of people, after such wars, will be disabled for the rest of their lives.
Such situations always lead to the financial consequences for the state, because a lot of organizations can be accidentally destroyed, and the level of unemployment is always high after the war.And, unfortunately, the fighting part fails to win the war in most cases, especially if it is against the authorities.
The losses of lives are huge regardless the results, and the authority sometimes even manages to speculate on someone’s grief. Other countries can benefit from this as well. They can use this situation to invade the suffering territory and take the control over it under the guise of helping. I would like to highlight the most significant achievements of civil wars described in the article “The chief achievements of the Civil War which make it one of the significant events in the history of United States”, written by Samir:
-The first and the most important achievement is the abolition of the enslavement, which lasted for almost two centuries. It took four bloody years for Afro-Americans to put an end to the slavery.
In January 1865, the Congress of the States submitted the Thirteenth Amendment, due to which any slavery or involuntary servitude was forbidden, with the exception of the punishment for the committed crime. (Samir, n.d.)
– The Triumph of the Nationalism over the State Rights was also one of the main victories. The war eliminated from the American politics the idea of state sovereignty and secession for all times to come. The civil war readjusted the relations between the states and the nation and it was now acknowledged by all, including the government. Though the two lines were completed much later, the beginning in this direction was made earlier, during the civil war (Samir, n.d.).
The women also saw new possibilities open up during and after the war. In wartime, they often took jobs previously done by men on farms and in factories, and thousands served in the Union nursing corps. Partly as a result, postwar women’s political and reform groups were larger and more militant than the groups that preceded them (“The Civil War, Results of the Civil War”, n.d.).
Disfranchised groups often saw their positions improve as a result of the war. Irish and German immigrants had experienced (and returned) the hostility of native–born Americans in the decades before the war. About one in four Union soldiers was an immigrant, and their help in defeating the South temporarily eased anti–immigrant feeling (“The Civil War, Results of the Civil War”, n.d.).
All these success stories push our revolutionaries to fight for their rights. But judging from the history, most of the civil wars did not have the happy end and some of them even developed into the World Wars. But I think that in our modern world there are a lot of possibilities to resolve conflict situations in a peaceful way. Unfortunately, some people do not want even to consider them and just start a war.
Works cited:
1. James Fearon, “Iraq’s Civil War” in Foreign Affairs. 2007. Web. Accessed on 17 Jan 2016 at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_war#cite_note-fearon-1
2. Samir, “The chief achievements of the Civil War which make it one of the significant events in the history of United States.”2011. Web. Accessed on 17 Jan 2016 at
http://www.preservearticles.com/2011090813232/the-chief-achievements-of-the-civil-war-which-make-it-one-of-the-significant-events-in-the-history-of-united-states.html
3. “The Civil War, Results of the Civil War”.(n.d).Web. Accessed on 17 Jan 2016 at
http://www.countriesquest.com/north_america/usa/history/the_civil_war/results_of_the_civil_war.html