After the war ended, Lincoln pardoned all of the Confederate soldiers and so they could not be arrested or punished for fighting against the Union. The South would be allowed to rejoin the United States but only later. Some Confederates did not want to return to the United States and moved to places like México or Brazil.
Historians have had different ideas about whether the Confederacy could have won the war. Most of them, such as James McPherson, say that it would have been difficult but possible. The Union had far more people, money and industry. By most estimates, the Union had over 2 million soldiers while the Confederacy had 1 million.
One advantage the Confederacy had was that they only needed to defend their land, whereas the Union could only win if they took full control the Confederate states. Furthermore, the Union could only fight the war if their people wanted them to keep fighting. Lincoln had opponents in the North (the Copperheads) who wanted the war to end. If the Confederacy had defended itself for long enough, it may have led to more people in the Union turning against the war and supporting the Copperheads. However, Lincoln held on to his support and won the 1864 election.
The Union Navy blocked ships from going into the Confederate ports. Although some ships managed to get past, most could not. The Confederacy had big money problems because they could not sell cotton and other goods to other countries. The Confederacy collected less taxes than the Union, so they printed money to pay for the war. This caused inflation (rising prices).
Another factor was that the Confederacy could not get help from outside. They had hoped that Britain and France would support the Confederacy because they wanted to buy their cotton. However, Britain and France did not give them help. There were three reasons for this. Firstly, they thought that slavery was wrong. Secondly, they did not want to become enemies of the United States. Thirdly, they could get cotton from elsewhere.
Most historians also think that Abraham Lincoln was a better leader than Jefferson Davis. Don E. Fehrenbacher says that Lincoln's skills helped keep the Border States and ordinary people on his side. Lincoln left his generals alone if they did a good job and fired them if they did not. Davis lacked a clear plan, tried to do too many tasks at once and often chose people to do jobs just because they were his friends. He annoyed his generals and other Confederate politicians. William Cooper says that better leadership helped the Union, but they were already more likely to win.
Many soldiers on both sides died during the war. Most of the war was fought in the South. Many railroads, farms, houses and other things were destroyed, and most people there became very poor.
The period after the war, called Reconstruction, lasted from the end of the war to 1877. The Union Army stayed in some Southern states and made them occupied territory. Three important amendments were added on to the US Constitution. The amendments were proposed (or suggested) by the US government. Although not every American supported them, they got enough support to pass:
After the war, some of the Union Army's leaders went into politics. Generals Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Harrison, and McKinley became US presidents. Other veterans were elected to other offices.
The Southern states were allowed to ask to rejoin the union. When they were accepted, that could send senators and representatives to the US Congress again and make their own state laws. During Reconstruction, black Americans built schools and other social infrastructure. Some of the schools became the historically-black colleges that still exist. After southern states rejoined the Union, most of them made laws that limited what black people could do.
The Amnesty Act of 1872 restored the rights to vote and to hold political office for most former members of the Confederacy. Some of them also became politicians.
Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun (Tutankhaten, Tutankhamen) was a Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. He reigned from when he was nine years old (1334 BC) to when he died (1323 BC). He became Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty (royal family) during the New Kingdom.
Tutankhamun was the son of Akhenaten and one of Akhenaten's sisters, or perhaps one of his cousins,Kiya.
Tutankhamun ruled for 9 years and died very young, at 19, so he is known as The Boy King. He was married to his half-sister Ankhesenamun, daughter of Queen Nefertiti, his step mother.
In his third year of his reign, Tutankhamun reversed several changes made during his father's reign. He ended the worship of the god Aten and restored the god Amun to supremacy. The ban on the cult of Amun was lifted and traditional privileges were restored to its priesthood. The capital was moved back to Thebes and the city of Akhetaten abandoned. This is when he changed his name to Tutankhamun, "Living image of Amun", reinforcing the restoration of Amun.
In 1922 Howard Carter found Tutankhamun's tomb. Tutankhamen was believed to carry a curse. Actually, the archeologists who visited his tomb died from natural causes.
Recent studies of his body using CT scans and DNA tests show that he had two children, but they died very young. Scientists now believe he died from a broken leg, made more complicated by bone disease and malaria. Before this discovery there were many theories about his early death, including murder. It is quite certain that he was infected by several strains of malaria, and very likely that he had some genetic defects caused by inbreeding. His parents were brother and sister. The final cause of his death is still unclear.
In 2014 the Egyptian Museum in Cairo opened four new halls in the Tutankhamun Gallery.
Independence
The word independence means "not dependent", or not having to depend on anyone or anything else. It also means being strong and able to survive alone. Anything can be dependent or independent. When people talk about independence, it may be about people or countries, where it is often being spoken about as a good thing. For places, it may mean sovereignty or autonomy. In science, as in "independent variable" the word does not mean it's good or bad.
A country gets its independence when it is no longer part of another country. Sometimes countries get their independence in a war, as when the United States left the British Empire in the American War of Independence. Countries can also get their independence peacefully, like Canada and Norway did. Help from another country may be needed to get independence, like in World War II, when the allies freed many countries that had been controlled by the Axis powers and, temporarily, vice versa. Attempts to gain independence may lead to civil war and may be unsuccessful.
Singapore gained independence from Malaysia in 1965. The newest country to get its independence was South Sudan. Other countries that became independent not long ago are Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992, Eritrea in 1993 and East Timor in 2002. However, some countries have political parties that discuss whether their country should become independent. Some examples of these are the Scottish National Party (SNP) or the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP).
Anubis
Anubis is the protector of the gates to the Underworld, Osiris replaced him as the god of the dead. He looks like a man with the head of a jackal (an animal, native to Africa, similar to wolves).
Anubis, as the god of death and the afterlife, was closely associated with mummification and burial rites. Egyptian jackals had an association with the dead, as well. They were often found digging up buried bodies and eating them, which may be why Anubis was depicted as part jackal. The priests who mummified the dead kings (called pharaohs) wore costumes to make them appear like jackals.