Regions of Us After Civil War

The Civil War left an impressionable mark on the nation as a whole - physically, economically, and furthermore politically. Two of the nations regions most affected was the South and the West. While the south gained political strentgh through a "solid south" Democracy, their

weak reliance on the crop lien system adversel affected their

econmy; meanwhile the farmers migrated to the west because of the Homestead Act, their

economy suffered in part because of over production, but united to form one of the most popular third parties in American history - the Populists.

The Civil War is an example of a sectional war whose results left most of American nation in a weak state, which is illustrated especially in the South. Upon the end of the Civil War, a new ideology of th south developed known as the "New South Creed," encouraging Southeners to diversify the economy by industrializing and become independent

of northern manufactoring industries. Although the initial

intent was well motivated, the South did not industrialized, with

exceptions to textile mills. Instead, because of the heavy reliance of staple cash crops such as tobacco and cotton, the South shifted into a new system of argicultural known as the crop lein system, which resulted in a cycle of debt that led the South further into debt. The system itself designed only to pay farmers once a year, was a failure and a problem to the farmers because it forced them to buy their

tools and land on credit - adding to the exixsting poster war debts. Although the Southern region was weakened economically because of debt and dependence

on "King Cottom," it did gain political strength through the use of "Solid South" Southern politics, after the Civil