The English Civil War shaped the unique Mixed Monarchy in the 17th century, while the ensuing American Civil War unified the United States which was divided into the Confederate and the Union two diametrically different civilizations. So as the most influential events in modern history and major national practices, it is worth exploring the causes of the English Civil War and the American Civil War and discussing their similarities as well as differences from three perspectives including economy, ideology, and politics. And by the methods of historical-comparative analysis(Baud&Willem, 1997), we are expecting to deepen, expand, and verify the understanding of the causes of civil wars.
Firstly, the economic conflicts between the opposite sides of the two countries were surging undercurrent. For Britain, three factors had become the chronic disease of the country. First, King Charles had spent such numerous war expenditures in military affairs as Anglo-Scotland and Anglo-Spanish that the domestic financial pressure rocketed. Second, during the Stuart dynasty, the interest of the urban middle class and the feudal landowner gradually diverged. Third, the economic crisis at that time caused serious inflation due to Charles’s raising high taxes.
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For the United States, after the American Independent War there existed two parts the Northern and the Southern that had been developing into two diametrically economic systems. The northern modern manufacturing pattern got fast growth due to the Industrial Revolution, while the southern still kept their economic self-sufficiency relying on plantation and slavery. The difference between the two groups tolerated each other until the Westward Movement came to an end. In the part of the northern, according to Moore(1976), there was some pressure on the side of capital requirements, and there were corresponding indications that the labor supply was tight. While, in the part of the Southern, an unbalanced development was the root of the following tariff contradiction.
By comparison, we learn that prewar Britain's economic conflicts to a large extent were dependent on King Charles's undesirable behaviors while prewar America’s ones attributed to the Northern’s and the Southern’s different modes of productivity. Put it in another way, the economic problems the two countries encountered, one was much affected by the individual factors and the other one by historical factors. Therefore, it might be inferred that the English Civil War could have been postponed if a wise monarch had ruled the country.
Secondly, from the cultural perspective, both countries were faced with two different but equally influential ideologies that were incubated in the different groups. For Britain, the religious discords between the Puritans and the Anglo-Catholics were increasingly intense. For the United States, concerns about slavery have emerged to the surface following the Atlantic trade. One example was that the an-ti slavery novels such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin once became the most popular readings in the 18th century. The reasons why slavery was incompatible with those opponents were very complicated. For one thing, slavery was against the spirit that all men are born equal, which was conveyed in the Independent Declaration in black and white. For the other thing, slavery also was against Puritanism whose nature was relevant to the religious fraternity spirit. With such anti-slavery thoughts spreading all over the whole country, most people in the Union and even some of the Southerners got inspired and involved in the civil wars in other forms of assistance.
By contrast, we learn that public support played an important role in the process of preparation for war. Take America as an example, the various prewar propaganda such as the anti-slavery literature readings prevailing in the Northern agitated the messes and triggered their ethical discontent towards the Southern planters.
Thirdly, political power struggle also should be listed as the essential cause for which civil wars broke out. For Britain, under the national condition where multiple parties including two major ones Royalist and Parliament, confront each other. On the one hand, Charles’s strong belief in the divine right of kings abandoned the spirit of the king under a law that had already been demonstrated in 1215’s Magna Carta; on the other hand, the parliament insisted that the king should not abuse his right to seek to change the current national system without the permission from the parliament. According to Tim(2015), the king was the head of the body politic, and by hurting other parts of that body, he was only hurting himself. It was just too late for Charles to realize that truth. The conflicts on political ideology finally led to the civil war. The reason why the king would not rule according to law was difficult to understand and we guess that it had something to do with Charles's father, James І, a strong believer in the divine right of kings, too.
For the United States, the political struggle focused on the state power in the Senate. Pointed out that “Political leaders knew that the admission of a slave state or a free one would tip the balance one way or another.” Under the background in which the American Westward Movement grew vigorously, the new-discovered state was classified as a free state or a slavery state would make a big difference in the influence of both the Northern and the Southern. The fact that uncertainty was an inherent part of the situation due to unsettled and partly settled lands in the West greatly magnified the difficulties of reaching a compromise(). And until Abraham Lincoln who represented the interest of the Northern was elected as the sixteenth president, that conflict erupted in the form of warfare.
Generally speaking, in Britain, the conflict on the political ideology is mainly between the absolute monarchy and the parliamentary while in the United States it is between the federalism and the States’ Rights. As to Britain, Charles І, the power holder, attempted to enlarge his power scale until beyond the law; as to the United States, the federal government failed to grasp its legitimate authority so much that the states should separate from the federal. It implies that the country would get into trouble if those in power did not take proper advantage of their power, whether abusing or losing.
To sum up, we compare the causes of the British and American Civil Wars from three aspects of economic, cultural, and political ideology, analyze their similarities and differences, and draw conclusions from the comparative analysis. We conclude that the course of history is shaped by inherent conflicts as well as accident conflicts together. The inherent conflicts are often produced between two interest groups that are well-matched in strength, while the accidental conflicts are more often related to individuabehaviorur, such as Charles І 's unpopularity. Although the summing-up needs more historical facts to support it, it can be roughly stated in the way that the causes of the English Civil War are inclined to be accidental conflicts while the causes of the American Civil War are inclined to be inherent conflicts.
References
- Baud, Michiel, and Willem Van Schendel. “Toward a Comparative History of Borderlands.” Journal of World History 8.2 (1997): 211-242.
- Barrington Moore, Jr. “Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World” Beacon Press (1974): 132-141.
- Tim Harris. Revisiting the Causes of the English Civil War. Huntington Library Quarterly, Volume 78, Number 4, Winter 2015, pp. 615-635.
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