Final answer:
The primary cause of the Civil War was slavery. However, there were also political, economic, and social factors that contributed to the tensions between the North and the South.
Step-by-step explanation:
The primary cause of the Civil War in the United States was slavery. The tensions between the proslavery South and the antislavery North had been growing for decades before Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860. The Republican Party's position on keeping slavery out of the territories and the fear of Republican abolitionists using violent tactics to deprive southerners of their enslaved property ultimately led to the secession of southern states and the formation of the Confederate States of America.
While slavery was the main cause of the Civil War, there were other factors that contributed to the tensions between the North and the South. These factors included political, economic, and social fissures. The war exposed these fissures, leading to political shifts where the federal government dominated the states, and economic shifts where the South's plantation economy was undermined, and the North's industrial economy was strengthened. Socially, the war created tensions between different social classes, resulting in draft and bread riots, and ultimately led to the emancipation of enslaved blacks.