The Great American Conflict of Interests

The Great American Conflict of Interests What developed into the civil war between the North and South originated from geological differences, which led to economic and then moral conflicts of interest. The way in which colonists adapted to their surroundings in the early years of the European settlement of America directly affected the way in which their economies would work, the way their people would live and the moral standards by which they would live by. The War Between the States did not just suddenly occur but rather it took nearly two centuries of developmental differences to finally set it off. When the Europeans began to settle the South in the mid 1600s they took notice of how different the land was from the land in the North. The South was an ideal environment for growing crops. Certain colonies primarily grew one type of plant called a cash crop. Thousands of acres of land spread across the continent full of untapped natural resources. Colonies such as Virginia and Maryland had found a cash crop in tobacco (Americans 38). While South Carolina had grown indigo and rice as their staple crops, the people of North Carolina, used the principal exports of wood and wood by-products from its pine forests, (Americans 38) as their main export. Realizing that there was much money to be made in America the southerners started forming large farming communities called plantations. The plantations were mostly self-reliant and highly profitable but needed a large amount of laborers to keep them going. Indentured servitude was usually t! he first choice among plantation owners as the best way to staff the farm and save money. In exchange for usually seven years of labor, a plantation owner would pay the way for an immigrant from a foreign land to America. This is the practice that led to slavery in America. Realizing that it would be even cheaper to just buy slaves for life instea...