Answer:
Prior to World War I, the United States was an economic powerhouse, with wealth and industrial production rivaling that of Europe's far older colonial powers. When the country was divided and ravaged by a bloody civil war in the mid-nineteenth century, an American superpower seemed improbable (1861-65). The US Civil War began with 11 southern states seceding (withdrawing) from the United States, chiefly over disputes about states’ rights and the federal government’s authority to limit the spread of slavery. The Confederate States of America was established by 11 dissident states, while Abraham Lincoln, the newly elected president, pledged to keep the union together through military force. Its greater population and stronger manufacturing base meant the Union (northern states) were better suited for war than the Confederacy (southern states). Nevertheless, the Civil War lasted four painful years and resulted in more than 600,000 deaths. As the country worked to heal the wounds of the war and reintegrate the former Confederate states, the decade following became known as Reconstruction. Slavery was officially abolished in the United States, though assimilating more than three million former slaves posed its own set of challenges. Some of the more negative consequences were the rise of racist groups like the Ku Klux Klan and the formation of ‘Jim Crow’ laws to segregate and marginalise African-Americans. Despite these social issues, the final quarter of the nineteenth century was one of the most expansionist and profitable periods in American history. It was during this period that the foundations for America's new capitalist economy were laid. Giant companies, transportation and communications networks, the development of heavy manufacturing, and banking and financial institutions were all features that emerged in the late 1800s.
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