The civil war threatened the existence of the United States itself. In the war it cost more American lives than any other American conflict in history. The Civil war had many factors, which caused it. Many of these factors had developed years before over several issues such as the sectionalism of the North and the South and over the institution of Slavery. Some of the factors including the Mexican War, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the dread Scoot decision had some influence on the groundwork of the Civil War.

The Mexican war would be one of the main contributors to the Civil war. At first it was a war between America against Mexico that the U.S. provoked to gain land. This gained land will be what divided the views between the Northern States and the Southern States and intensify their sectionalism. Most of the conflict after the Mexican...