People get the answer wrong every time anyway, because usually they're talking about why SECESSION happened.

The Civil War happened because the traitors got violent and the legitimate government got sick of their shit, full stop.

Well, that and the economic impact the North felt when their access to cotton (because New England was a big player in the slave trade, both on the getting slaves side and on the buying slave-produced materials for the mills that were the heart of the industrial revolution) was interrupted.

North and South were trying to negotiate terms, South got pissy and fired on Union troops who were trying to avoid a conflict. If it were all about the corporate whores a-whorin', I don't think war would have been the preferred resolution.

The civil war happened for the same reason every other war happened. deep down inside we're all just a bunch of violent monkeys.

Bort, the war was extremely profitable for the handful of corporations that actually existed in the US at the time. It usually is.

"Diet" pills.