The US grew after the revolution they gained their independence from Great Britain. They opened up new trade routes

First student :

The US grew after the revolution they gained their independence from Great Britain. They opened up new trade routes, manufacturing their own items. They opened up the Western territories to settle in. The factors that led to Sectionalism between the North and the South was based on slavery. The nation was divided over this issue from slavery to antislavery. The factors that led to the Civil War was because the Northern and Southern states began to clash over their issues from economic interests, cultural value, and also the power of the federal government. Also the differences of beliefs for slavery. The factor that led to Reconstruction was that the federal government began to oversee the government in the South. They wanted to sort out the inequities of slavery and reconstruct the government itself. 

second student :

After the Revolution, Britain finally recognized the United States as an independent nation.  The articles on Confederation were created to allow the continental congress to make necessary ideas to end the war. Which would soon be replaced by the US constitution, the first modern constitutional democracy.  One of the factors leading up to the civil war was the decision on the expansion of slaves westward,  I read in the online textbook. They debated on whether the new states would have slaves or be free. Another aspect was a small group of abolitionists who sought slavery out to be wrong and called for an immediate end. That put a rise in the tension between the North and the South. The south seceded and created its own government and formed the confederacy. To protect themselves and slavery from the interference of the central government. Which eventually led to the civil war.  The end of the civil war led to the beginning of reconstruction. The southern states had to integrate back into the union. President Lincoln created the 10 percent plan that outlined how the states returned.  After the amendment, free slaves began to take states to improve the condition. It still did not get better for free slaves. Southerners began to create independent laws in the south to keep freed slaves in poverty and to keep them feeling inferior. Leading up to the civil rights act of 1866.