h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

To begin, calling the war a war of northern aggression is idiotic. It was the psychopaths in south carolina (their ilk has not changed much) that started the war by attacking the union-held fort sumpter which, after an effective siege, would have fallen with time. As Sam Houston, one of the most famous southerners, and the person for which Houston Texas is named, once said: "The problem with south carolina is that it is too small to be an independent republic, and too large to be an insane asylum."

That being said, I think that industrialization cannot be emphasized enough. The reason that the south lost the war was because of their agrarian nature. Slaves cost far too much to be put to work in factories; however, the northern economic system was based on wage-slavery. If they strike, you have Pinkerton kill them all and then hire more.

The south, due to better education, was actually more technologically advanced, and, during the course of the war, invented the submarine, the ironclad battleship, and the machine gun. (At that point called Gatling guns, I believe.) Unfortunately for them, the south was not able to organize a labor force necessary for the production of wartime goods. They were unable to produce any of the weaponry needed for war, because slaves were not expendable enough to be used in factory labor, and there was no other lower-class population of any size.

The north's industrial capacity exploded. They had all the labor they needed due to a recent influx of European immigrants, and were able to

Far from weakening the United States, the civil war gave the nation the industrial power it needed to continue westward expansion, and set the groundwork not only for modern warfare, but for america's status as a superpower.

It is unfortunate that we did not heed the lessons of other significant powers, such as Britain. The British Empire was once known an empire on which the sun never set, and now does not enjoy such a status. Y'all got arrogant then invaded the middle east, and it all went downhill from there.

Wait...