I really don't know where to start for a quick HN response. There are just so many things that depends heavily on context around them. The economics, for me, are the most interesting parts but it takes a lot of information to put things together to explain.

If I'm going to cite a single thing, it would have to be the Cherokee Declaration of Causes. As a single document providing context around events at the time it's a little mind blowing the first time you read it.

http://cherokee.org/AboutTheNation/History/Events/CherokeeDe...

Wow, not to distract but my mind is completely blown by how completely unusable that website is on mobile while not obviously broken. The sharing widget makes it completely impossible to read.

I found the economics of the Confederation extremely fascinating. Given the sanctions and unlikely future growth of the slavery sector, there wouldn't have even needed to be a land war and it would have collapsed in a few more years on its own.

Basically, the model of the union government's sanctions today.

Wish that perspective was in my primary education. I feel like I only learned about generals and battles.

One of the things that's interesting is that there was also a complete economic panic in the North regarding what an independent south would do to the economy.