Advanced Placement US History (AP US History) Practice Exam

The attack on Fort Sumter in 1861 marks the direct trigger that initiated the American Civil War. On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, a United States military installation in South Carolina. This act of aggression signified the beginning of hostilities between the North and the South and prompted President Abraham Lincoln to call for troops to respond, effectively starting the war. The attack galvanized public opinion in the North against the rebellion and solidified the divide that had been growing over issues like slavery and states’ rights.

While other events, such as the Dred Scott Decision, the election of Abraham Lincoln, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act, heightened tensions and played significant roles in the events leading to the war, they did not directly initiate military conflict. The Dred Scott Decision fueled sectional animosities, the election of Lincoln in 1860 raised fears of a strategy to limit slavery, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act sought to address the expansion of slavery but did not result in immediate armed conflict. It was ultimately the confrontation at Fort Sumter that marked the definitive shift from political tensions to war.