Where was the Civil War fought?

The Civil War lasted for 4 years, with fighting taking place in a majority of the country

Fought from 1861 to 1865, the Civil War saw battles and raids across much of the country—from Pennsylvania to Texas and New Mexico to Florida.

37 maps that explain the American Civil War

This collection of 37 maps tells the story of the American Civil War as well as any historical account. See how and where the war began and why, and where the major battles were fought. Discover how the North achieved victory and the many ways the war changed America forever.

Was the Civil War really about states' rights?

The Civil War was fought over slavery, and Confederate leaders and supporters admitted as much in the build-up to the war and after. But later on, after the South's defeat, the lie of the Lost Cause was pushed—and it persists to this day. This four-minute video details the story of the Lost Cause, "state's rights", Confederate monuments, and the machinations behind them.

The Civil War was the deadliest conflict in American history

Between 1861 and 1865, an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers died from battle and disease—more than in all other US wars combined.

Hear how the world reacted to the American Civil War

European nations closely watched the Civil War for its economic and political consequences. Some European nations quietly engaged diplomatically with the Confederacy but withheld recognition. When the Union made slavery's abolition a central cause, European public opinion turned sharply against the South.

See the army generals who helped define the Civil War

Hear profiles of the Union and Confederate commanders whose choices defined the war's outcome—from Grant and Lee to Sherman, Jackson, and others. See how their actions, tactics, and skills shaped the Civil War.

The Civil War turned the Continental Divide into an American symbol of identity

Historians argue that the boundary only became a celebrated American symbol in the 1860s, when Civil War-era leaders promoted a west-east geographic divide to replace the devastating north-south political divide, and that the term's use spiked after the transcontinental railroad crossed it in 1868.

US westward expansion—and the status of slavery in the new territories—was a major cause of the American Civil War

The addition of new western lands forced the nation to confront whether slavery would spread beyond the South. Each debate over the admission of a new state sharpened the divide between free and slaveholding regions.

The Civil War permanently strengthened federal power

The Civil War expanded federal power through emancipation, national military mobilization, and postwar civil rights laws, permanently strengthening the national government and shifting the balance of authority away from the states.

The attack on Fort Sumter was the Civil War's first battle

Confederate forces fired on Union-held Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor on April 12, 1861, after Lincoln refused to surrender it. The bombardment lasted 34 hours, forcing a Union surrender and marking the beginning of the Civil War.

Cold War summary on a map

The Cold War spanned much of the world, going far beyond the main territories of the principal players: the US and the Soviet Union. This video map shows where the action took place, from the wars in Southeast Asia to the Suez Canal in Egypt.

What happened after the Civil War?

After the massive devastation and scorched earth wartime methods of the Civil War, the US entered its Reconstruction era. Listen to this podcast to learn what that entailed and who was affected.

See rare Civil War photographs preserved by the National Archives

The Civil War was the first major American conflict documented by a camera, with its images distributed widely to the public. The National Archives' digital collection offers thousands of original Civil War images: portraits, battlefields, hospitals, and everyday life.

Explore an interactive map of battles from the American Revolution, along with detailed summaries of each engagement

11 states formed the Confederacy, with 2 others claiming allegiance

Between December 1860 and June 1861, 11 Southern states officially seceded to form the Confederacy. Pro-Confederate factions in Missouri and Kentucky also declared secession, but both states remained largely under Union control throughout the war.

A map of slavery's spread across the US

Need a visual on how prevalent slavery was in the US? Scroll through this interactive map and timeline based on census data from 1790 to 1860.

Explore new and contemporary perspectives with Emerging Civil War

Emerging Civil War brings together historians and writers who offer fresh research, essays, and battlefield stories that uncover overlooked events, people, and places—showing that scholarship on the war is still evolving over 160 years later.

The South was placed under federal military rule during Reconstruction

Beginning in 1867, the Reconstruction Acts divided 10 former Confederate states into five military districts, each governed by a Union general. Federal troops supervised elections, enforced civil rights, and maintained order under direct congressional authority.

The Confederate flag that most people recognize was not the national flag

The familiar Confederate flag was actually a battlefield banner; the Confederacy's true national flag, the "Stars and Bars," featured a blue canton with white stars and red-white-red stripes resembling the US flag.

Congress descended into fistfights, duels, and violence before the Civil War

In the decades before the Civil War, members of the United States Congress carried weapons, assaulted colleagues, and, in one case, a congressman killed another in a duel. The violence was driven largely by sectional conflict over slavery and foreshadowed the nation's descent into war.

Map of union membership by state

In the United States, unions exist across the entire country, but some states have more union members than others. Multiple reasons exist: from policy differences across states, to industrial and cultural influences. Want to learn more? Find out which state has the highest percentage of union membership, and which one has the lowest, through this map.

Who won the Vietnam War?

Who won the Vietnam War? The question of who won the Vietnam War has been a subject of debate, and the answer depends on the definition of victory. This Encyclopædia Britannica article explains why this question hasn't been definitively answered despite the two halves of Vietnam now existing under one flag.

An interactive timeline of the major events of World War I

World War I took place between July 28, 1914 and November 11, 1918, but a lot happened within that relatively short time. And even more occurred afterward. The comprehensive timeline shows when major and influential events took place during the conflict, accompanied by articles, videos, and other media in support.

China vs. Taiwan, explained

Taiwan and China are separated by just 100 miles of water, but the distance between the two countries is farther than that. This 14-minute video details the history of their sovereignty dispute, and China's likelihood to use military tactics if they can't unify peacefully. The main problem there is that the United States has vowed to defend Taiwan, which could lead to an American-Chinese war.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II

The Russia-Ukraine war began on Feb. 24, 2022, when Russian forces launched a multi-front invasion. The conflict has become Europe's largest ground war since World War II, reshaping global security, energy markets, and alliances.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

President Polk deliberately provoked war with Mexico

After Mexico refused to sell California and New Mexico, President James K. Polk ordered US troops into disputed territory between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande—knowing it would likely spark a conflict. When fighting broke out, he used it to justify declaring war.

The United States is one of only around two dozen countries with a fully federal system of government, in which power is divided between national and state governments.

Abraham Lincoln was almost assassinated weeks before his inauguration as he traveled from Illinois to DC through Baltimore in 1861; it took two independent claims for Lincoln to be convinced the threat was real

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

View the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history.

44% of Americans say they pray at least once a day—discover how your state's religiosity stacks up against the rest of the country.

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

Visualize the path of every solar eclipse from 1900 to 2099 and see what each looks like when observed from different locations on Earth.

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.

See how fireworks are made and learn how metals like magnesium and copper are responsible for different colors.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

Watch a 1934 short film starring jazz legend Cab Calloway, a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance's music scene

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

Ebola infects and disables immune cells, triggering a cascade of events that leads to small blood clots throughout the body, weakening blood vessels and interrupting blood flow to key organs.

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.