Tomas Pueyo at Uncharted Territories:
Because of climate, the North farmed crops like wheat and barley that required very little work, and that work was easy to automate. This tended to make farmers independent, incentivize industrialization for the machinery, and push settlers west very fast, as they weren’t as limited by labor needs.
Conversely, the crops grown in the south—mainly cotton, tobacco, sugarcane, and rice—all require substantially more work, so getting lots of workers at the lowest possible cost made or broke fortunes. This is why slavery emerged here, why it was fundamental to the South’s economy, and why Southerners went to war to continue it.
Why does all this matter? It’s not just a crucial fact of US history. This has dramatic consequences today, from the roots of racial inequality, to where the Democratic party wins elections, and the relative poverty of the US South.
So let’s dive in: How exactly did climate cause the Civil War, and what are the consequences of that today?
More here.
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