[jlogajan]

In general, human beings will not endure the privations and miseries of war to make sure their rich neighbors will be allowed to keep their slaves.

In general, regions can count on the populace to fight wars for just about any justification imaginable. Such is the nature of mankind. Southerners claim the war was just because the peasants supported it by fighting. Well, then the northern peasants also proved the northern side was justified by the same argument. In fact the ability to form an army has no bearing on the justness of the cause.

[ggekko]

"In general, regions can count on the populace to fight wars for just about any justification imaginable....."

This statement is true but vacuous. The question at hand is: Why Did the South Fight? Your answer is equivalent to saying: "the South fought because they fought". I think we have already established that fact.

The most militarily inefficient fighting units throughout history have been those units where the soldiers were under some form of external coercion. This type of coercion can range from the outright slavery as in the Helot armies of the Ancient world or the various forms of conscription invented by various states in more recent times. In war, armies coerced to fight have almost always compare unfavorably to volunteer armies whose motivation for fighting was to defend personal property and other liberties.

The numerically inferior Greeks defeated the numerically superior slave armies of Persia. The Venetian coalition defeated the larger Turkish fleet at Lepanto largely because the Venitian commanders were free to improvise whereas the servile Turkish commanders were not. The historical record is unmistakable in showing the free men will outfight their less free counterparts time after time.

The neo-marxist interpretation of South's war motivation is, essentially, that evil slavemasters tricked their not too bright fellow Confederates into fighting in oder to "save the plantation". This interpretation is refuted by overwhelming historical evidence.

The South fought to "save their way of life" against what they considered to be an imperialist Northern government. The essential nobility of their war aim helps to account for why the numerically and industrially inferior South was very nearly able to win the Civil War. The South fought with an elan and espirit de corps only seen among free men defending their own personal liberties.