What was the primary outcome of the Civil War?

The primary outcome of the Civil War was the preservation of the Union and the abolition of slavery. The Civil War, fought from 1861 to 1865, was fundamentally about the battle over the future of the United States, particularly regarding whether the Union would survive or be divided. The conflict ultimately resulted in the defeat of the Confederate states, thus ensuring that the United States remained a single nation.

Simultaneously, the war catalyzed significant changes regarding slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 declared the freedom of all enslaved people in the Confederate states. After the war, the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified in 1865, which formally abolished slavery across the entire country. Therefore, both the preservation of the Union and the abolition of slavery were inextricably linked outcomes that defined the war's legacy.

In contrast, while options such as voting rights expansion and Reconstruction policies were important developments following the Civil War, they were later consequences rather than direct outcomes of the conflict itself. Likewise, the Civil Rights Movement, which sought to establish and protect the rights of African Americans, emerged decades later, making it a significant historical development but not an immediate outcome of the war.