The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page. War Military History Eras Prehistoric Ancient Medieval Gunpowder Industrial Modern Battlespace Air Information Land Sea Space Weapons Armor Artillery Biological Cavalry Chemical Electronic Infantry Nuclear Psychological Tactics Attrition Guerilla Maneuver Siege Total war Trench Strategy Economic Grand Operational Organization Formations Ranks Units Logistics Equipment Materiel Supply line Lists Battles Commanders Operations Sieges Theorists Wars War crimes Weapons Writers War Portal   v • d • e  A civil war is a military conflict which arises from a desire for usually radical change in society as a result of either cultural, social, religious, political or economic disputes due to diametrically opposed and uncompromising ideas about the leadership, administration and management of the population and territory it occupies, and which is resolved through use of weapons. The opponents are usually representatives of the same culture, society or nationality, and contest the right for the control of political power, and with it the right to formulate policy for future administration of the population and resources of the territory where the dispute takes place. Some civil wars may be preceded by a revolution when the major societal restructuring is attempted through a rapid and sudden effort to change the existing governing authority by force. A slow attempt to change the existing governing authority by force is called an insurgency, and whether successful or not, is likely to be classified as a civil war by some historians[citation needed] if, and only if, opposed by organized armed forces that seek to fight the insurgents using conventional tactics. Some historians[citation needed] define the civil war as a prolonged violence between organized factions or defined regions of a country, conventionally fought or not. The American Civil War (1861-1865) was caused by differences in regional economic realities and policies amongst the North, the South, and the West; differences in the interpretation of the federal Constitution in regards to the nature of federalism vis-à-vis the relationship of the central government and the several states; and the issue of expanding slavery into the western territories. The issue of slavery came about later as the catastrophic numbers of dead, wounded, or missing soldiers caused the North to shift the cause of the war from a legal, rational position of defending the Union and the legal basis for a state to secede, to an emotional one; that is "a new birth of freedom." Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation was in part a political device to garner support from Northern intellectuals and religious communities and to also shame sympathetic European powers and keep them out of the conflict. The proclamation extended only to slaves held in the Confederacy, where it was unenforceable.