What event initiated the Civil War in the United States?

The event that initiated the Civil War in the United States was the attack on Fort Sumter. This critical moment occurred on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces fired upon the Union-held fort in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. The attack marked the beginning of armed conflict between the North and South and is often seen as the official start of the Civil War.

The significance of this event lies in its demonstration of the deepening divide between the Union and the Confederate states over issues such as states' rights and slavery. After the attack, President Abraham Lincoln called for troops to suppress the rebellion, and the conflict escalated quickly as more states seceded from the Union in response to the attack.

The other options are important events in American history but did not initiate the Civil War. The Emancipation Proclamation came later, in 1863, as a way for Lincoln to undermine the Confederacy by freeing enslaved individuals in rebellious states. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed in 1848, ended the Mexican-American War and did not relate to the Civil War’s commencement. Lastly, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln occurred in 1865, after the Civil War had already concluded, further underscoring its irrelevance to the