5 ms·

Why would maintaining the integrity of union be an issue in the first place? It's not unless someone wants to secede. Who would want to secede, and why?

• s1artibartfast 6y ago
  >Why would maintaining the integrity of union be an issue in the first place? That’s exactly the question I’m getting at. At a high level, the question of what events led up to the war is different from why the north and south chose to go to war. I think it is an interesting question that usually gets glossed over by focusing on the motivations of the south. For the north, I think it was some combination of manifest destiny, national pride, and economic incentives. Perhaps they did not want to compete with a rival for North American territory and have a reduced capacity for international defense/power projection. You can ask why any government go to war to stop separatist movements, or incorporate new territories, and the answers may be different in each case. For example, the reasons Spain does not want an independent Catalonia are different than why China opposes an independent Taiwan. >Who would want to secede, and why? The south and slavery, for the sake of simplicity.