Social differences between the North and the South were so great that the Union could no longer function as a whole. Popular belief indicates that slavery was the driving force behind the war, when in actuality the major cause of the war was much broader. The South, an agrarian society, and the North, an industrial society, were deadlocked socially and economically. Political and sectional tensions were prevalent, but these differences came only as a result of a substantial economic differences. Because of this irrepressible conflict the Civil War broke out.
Many historians believe that the driving force behind the war was slavery.
In reality, however, the Civil War was fought because of wide-spread economic differences. Although slavery was a part of the economic system in the South, it was not the biggest part. To say that the irrepressible conflict was between slavery and freedom is to fail to grasp the nature and magnitude of the conflict. If slavery is not the sole cause of the war then one must examine the economic differences that caused the North and the South to Civil War. The rise in industrialization in the North and the expansion of the agrarian system in the south produced irreconcilable economic differences.