Effects of the Civil War
The Civil War caused a huge change in the American lifestyle. It had a huge lasting impact of the culture of Americans. Racism grew and it became harder for African Americans to have a nice lifestyle in America. Not only did it change culturally it also changed the country economically as well. The economy after the Civil War was initially driven by the construction of railroads connecting the industrial communities of the northeast and the agricultural regions of the Midwest and plains. In 1886, the railroads standardized the width of the track, bringing the South into a national railway system. As it matured the industrial area expanded to include communities in the Midwest with an expansion of agricultural regions further west. The economy that developed after the Civil War was still sharply divided regionally. But the economy after the Civil War was still mostly industrial which is what the economy is still like today.