One big reason: It gave the North an additional, powerful reason to fight and win the war.
Additional reasons: It gave the Union Army another source of soldiers, and it kept foreign powers from allying with the Confederacy.
<u>Historical context/details</u>:
President Abraham Lincoln issued The Emancipation Proclamation as an executive order on January 1, 1863. The executive order declared freedom for slaves in ten Confederate states in rebellion against the Union. It also allowed that freed slaves could join the Union Army to fight for the cause of reuniting the nation and ending slavery. As summarized by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, "The Proclamation broadened the goals of the Union war effort; it made the eradication of slavery into an explicit Union goal, in addition to the reuniting of the country."
While Lincoln personally was strongly against slavery, he had to tread carefully in his role as president and commander-in-chief. The Emancipation Proclamation was carefully worded in order to retain the support of four border slave states, which remained in the Union though they were states that permitted slavery, were Maryland, Missouri, Delaware, and Kentucky. Lincoln wanted to keep those states loyal to the Union cause.
The Emancipation Proclamation was also a way of blocking foreign support for the Confederate cause. According to the American Battlefield Trust, "Britain and France had considered supporting the Confederacy in order to expand their influence in the Western Hemisphere. However, many Europeans were against slavery." Britain had abolished slavery in its territories in 1833. France had put a final end to slavery in its territories in 1848. So when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, it also served as a foreign policy action to keep European powers out of the US Civil War, according to Steve Jones, professor of history at Southwestern Adventist University.
The main purpose of both documents is to assert the rights and freedoms of the people to form their own governments -- governments which will protect their rights as citizens.
Historical context:
The Declaration of Independence (1776) asserted the American colonies' decision to break away from British government. It included the same Enlightenment ideals of natural rights and liberties that would characterize the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen produced later (1789) in France.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen is a fundamental document of the French Revolution, which was written by Abbé Sieyès and the Marquis de Lafayette. Abbé Sieyès was a prominent clergyman in France who supported the rights of the common people. The Marquis de Lafayette was a member of the nobility who had fought in America's war for independence against Britain. Their document was written in consultation with Thomas Jefferson of the United States, who had drafted the Declaration of Independence.
The columbian exchange had a very negative effect on the Native Americans. The native americans received mostly disease from Europeans, but also certain plants and animals. Syphilis is one thing Europeans contracted from Native Americans.
The Crusades were a series of
religious wars sanctioned by the
Latin Church in the medieval
period. The most commonly
known Crusades are the
campaigns in the Eastern
Mediterranean
