Without specifically addressing the obvious issue of slavery, discuss the reasons behind the diverging ways of the North and the South in the first half of the nineteenth-century.

 

Balance of power 

The End of Compromise

Trade and Agriculture

The Wilmot Proviso Bill

Step-by-step explanation

Balance of power-Southerners had it in their minds that the Constitution gave them the sole power as a state to declare any other state as a federal law illegal. They believed that rights of the states were greater than those of federal. The Northerners on the other hand believed that the national government had more power than the states'. Therefore, regularly admission of new states to the Union as either a free state or a slave state tended to tip the balance of power.

The End of Compromise-It was the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which allowed citizens of a particular state to decide for themselves if they wanted to be a slave state or a free one when they applied for admission into the statehood. With the election of President Lincoln, the South believed that President Lincoln would surely try abolishing slavery in all states. On Nov. 6, 1860, the slave states had a meeting to consider seceding from the Union, which they did.

Trade and Agriculture-The North was business and trade oriented while the South was agrarian. They therefore had contrasting ideas on how to deal with their activities, bringing about disagreements.

The Wilmot Proviso Bill-With the outbreak of a war with Mexico, new disagreements between the two regions arose. The northerners thought that the Southerners will expand their territory to Mexico so as to continue with slavery. To counter that, they developed the Wilmot Proviso Bill which outlawed slavery in any territory acquired by the U.S. The South felt that the North had no such right to do that and therefore became a source of conflict.