Question

What traditions and institutions were destroyed by the conflict

Answer 1

Slavery was obviously destroyed. The domination of the Southern states in politics that had existed since the Constitution was signed was also brought down. The United States turned away from being an agricultural power to becoming an industrial power. In the aftermath of the war a last major push into the West (including the building of the first transcontinental railway) finished occupying the land and brought it all into the country as states and not as territories.