Viewing the American Civil War as a War of Unification as Opposed to a Civil War
When looking back on military history over the past two hundred years, it is tempting to argue that battles and entire wars are exactly as they seem. This common problem is readily found in two wars fought in the 1860s: the American Civil War (1861-1865) and the Austro-Prussian War (1866). However, while it is easy to consider the American Civil War as simply a war fought by the Union to maintain territorial integrity throughout the relatively young United States, and the Austro-Prussian War as merely the “middle” war of the three wars of German Unification meant to expand “German” territory, this is not the case. In reality, the American Civil War and Wars of German Unification (as opposed to simply the Austro-Prussian War), when compared through the lenses of military, socio-political, and personal factors, are in fact quite similar and if one compares these two series of events under the assumption that the Wars of German Unification were in fact driven by the desire to found a unified German state, one can readily come to the conclusion that the American Civil War was also a war fought to establish, as opposed to maintain, a unified American state. However, before one can start comparing the two series of events, it is necessary to point out the inherent differences between the two that makes a comparison between the two somewhat thornier to defend. These differences can be broken up into three groups: geographic differences, economic differences and military differences. In terms of geography, while the United States was clearly a sovereign state with clearly defined borders, the “concept of Germany geographically” (pg. 54) was not clearly developed until 1871. This difference is compounded on by the economic differences between the two regions: by the mid-1860s, Prussia was a relative economic giant, “easily outrunning Austria.” (pg. 54) This economic model was desired by Bismarck, who hoped to impose “model” economic policy on the region. This is in