Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Nationalism Vs. Sectionalism

Some time after the Revolution, America began to divide into two distinct agricultural settings. The Northern states favored a nationalistic view of the nation. Nationalism is when a people view the good of the whole country as more important than individual sections. The Southern states wanted a government more focused on sectionalism. Sectionalism is when a people value the good of an individual section over the good of the whole country. The Northern states had many mills and factories and most of their business came from selling goods to the South. The South was mostly farms and plantations, they were forced to buy from the North because of a protective tariff. This caused much tension between the two parts of the country, because while the tariff was good for the country on a whole, it was not always good for the South.
When a country has two separate views on what is important in the country is not good. I feel that the North was right. The nation should be more important than any one state or region. If the nation fails, then the section fails. However if a section fails, the nation can live on and eventually restore the region in need. The South was arrogant in assuming that their way of life was more important than the Northerners'. If the South could have been made to see the errors of their views, then many conflicts could have been avoided. Nationalism is on a whole more practical and more beneficial than Sectionalism.

1 comment:

Dob said...

Good job. explain your opinion more