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The Confederacy and the American Civil War, 1861-1865: Greed Or Grievance?

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  • Paul Hallwood

    (University of Connecticut)

Abstract

A contribution to the literature on the causes of civil war, specifically the American Civil War, 1861 – 1865, looking from the secessionist’s side. A model is developed allowing for the quantification of greed (retention of income flows deriving from the system of slavery) and grievance (assertion of state’s rights) as causes of Confederacy secession. War costs and preferences over how quickly war costs needed to be recouped are central in the analysis. A key finding is, even if the Confederate states did not under-estimate war costs, there was still a strong case for attempting secession to protect the economic return on slavery. While in many scenarios this makes it unnecessary to invoke willingness to pay to assert state’s rights, this too is not ruled out, but it is reasoned that greed was quantitatively the stronger motive. Given sufficient data the methodology can be applied to quantify motives in other civil wars.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Hallwood, 2018. "The Confederacy and the American Civil War, 1861-1865: Greed Or Grievance?," Working papers 2018-18, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:uct:uconnp:2018-18
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • N41 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
    • F54 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - Colonialism; Imperialism; Postcolonialism

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