Final answer:
Disagreements over slavery in the 1850s led to increasing tensions between the North and the South, ultimately resulting in the Civil War. Compromises and events such as the Fugitive Slave Act and the election of Abraham Lincoln further intensified these tensions.
Step-by-step explanation:
Tensions over slavery in the 1850s ultimately led to the Civil War between the North and the South. Northerners believed that a vast slave power conspiracy dominated national politics, while southerners saw an influential abolitionist element trying to eliminate slavery all over the country. These disagreements between the two sides caused increasing sectional tensions and a breakdown in compromise.
The Compromise of 1850, which resolved the question of California's status, did not effectively lessen the tensions. The Fugitive Slave Act, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Dred Scott decision, and other events further increased sectional hostilities and left leaders with little hope for compromise.
With the election of Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860, several southern states seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. This ultimately led to the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861.