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American Civil War

1861–1865 civil war in the United States between the North and the South over the enslavement of African-Americans

Also known as War Between the States · Civil War · The Civil War · U.S. Civil War · US Civil War · United States Civil War

Instance of: civil war
, historical period
Country: United States

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States. The South saw slavery as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln as US president in 1860 and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war ended with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the national abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.

Overview

All data

153 statements · 16% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Started: April 12, 1861
Ended: April 9, 1865
Cause: slavery in the United States
3
Sources
1.Stated in This Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil War
2.historynewsnetwork.org/article/137673
3.Stated in The State Rights Fetishbooks.google.com/books?id=yTyuTDhmsIwC&pg=PA68
View statement on Wikidata ↗
Abraham Lincoln
Has immediate cause: 1860 United States presidential election
secession of the Southern United States
Battle of Fort Sumter
Proclamation 80
Has contributing factor: Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
Kansas–Nebraska Act
Dred Scott v. Sandford
John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry
1860 Democratic National Convention
Participant: Union
1
Sources
1.Stated in Encyclopædia Britannica OnlineRetrieved 2026-04-14
View statement on Wikidata ↗
Confederate States of America
1
Sources
1.Stated in Encyclopædia Britannica OnlineRetrieved 2026-04-14
View statement on Wikidata ↗
Location: Southern United States
Northern United States
United States
Members / parts: Eastern theater of the American Civil War
Western theater of the American Civil War
Trans-Mississippi theater of the American Civil War
Pacific Coast Theater of the American Civil War
First Battle of Bull Run
Battle of Fort Sumter
Has effect: Emancipation Proclamation
Ten percent plan
Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
Reconstruction Era
United States
Confederate States of America
Short name: Civil War
Nickname: War Between the States
War of Northern Aggression used by: Confederate States of America
Studied by: military history of the United States
Followed by: Second American Civil War nature of statement: hypothetically
Reconstruction Era
Date: April 12, 1865

On other databases

93 identifiers linking American Civil War across the web's reference databases

Data quality

153

statements

16%

externally sourced

Source last edited September 8, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). American Civil War (Q8676). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/american-civil-war-Q8676