As the war began, the south had more railroads, factories, and people who could fight than the north.

a. true
b. false

The correct answer is B, as the statement is false.

In the North the great capitalist industry was growing, with a large concentration of salaried labor, in full takeoff and at the doors of the Second Industrial Revolution (to which the war contributed, with the new military technologies such as the battleships or the production of mass weaponry). These bourgeois groups from the north were represented by the new Republican Party, of a liberal nationalist type, which sought the implementation of protectionist policies.

On the other hand, the South remained anchored in an economic system that was unfavorable to capitalist development (mechanization and hiring of workers was cheaper than the maintenance of slaves). The Democratic Party would be the defender of slavery. This party had led the great expansion of the country to the south (activism in favor of the annexation of Mexican territory) and now stood as representative of the southern elites, which sought fundamentally the extension of the slave system and free trade for the export of raw materials and the importation of manufactured goods without barriers.