It was the first modern war...the machine gun, the submarine, and trench warfare were among many of the new developments that would later scourge the world in t

It was the first modern war...the machine gun, the submarine, and trench warfare were among many of the new developments that would later scourge the world in the 20th century. More importantly, the U.S. emerged from the civil war more fully committed to universal political and economic rights in the context of a modern industrial society, a philosophy that drove the nation's explosive growth across North America and still guides U.S. foreign policy today. Clearly the world would be vastly different in 2009 had the Confederacy and the institution of slavery survived on a divided North American continent.