The American Civil War, , was a civil war fought from 1861 to 1865 to determine the survival of the Union or independence for the Confederacy. Among the 34 states in January 1861, seven Southern slave states individually declared that they no longer wanted to be apart of the United States of America and formed the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy, called the South, grew to include eleven states, and although they claimed thirteen states and additional western territories, the Confederacy was never recognized by any foreign country. The states that remained loyal and did not declare secession were known as the Union or the North. The war had its origin in the factious issue of slavery, especially the extension of slavery into the western territories. After four years of combat, which had left up to 750,000 people, Union and Confederate, dead and had destroyed much of the South's infrastructure, the Confederacy collapsed and slavery was abolished. Then began the Reconstruction and the processes of restoring national unity and guaranteeing civil rights to the freed slaves.