This is a timeline of the main events of the Cold War, a state of and military tension after World War II between powers in the Western Bloc (the United States, its NATO allies and others) and powers in the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union, its allies in the Warsaw Pact and later the People’s Republic of China).
American Civil War
1860 United States presidential election
The election of Abraham Lincoln in November 1860 was the final trigger for secession.[109] Southern leaders feared that Lincoln would stop the expansion of slavery