The North wanted the new states to be “free states.” Most northerners thought that slavery was wrong and many northern states had outlawed slavery. The South, however, wanted the new states to be “slave states.” Cotton, rice, and tobacco were very hard on the southern soil.Click to see full answer. Keeping this in consideration, what were the differences between the North and South in the Civil War?A civil war is a war fought between citizens of the same country. The regions of the North and South were very different leading up to the American Civil War. In economics, the North was all about big cities and factories, whereas the South lived a farming lifestyle heavily dependent on slaves.Likewise, how did geography contribute to differences between the North and the South? The geography of the north and the south set up two very different societies, which was one of the major factors that led to the outcome of the Civil War. Although the south is somewhat like the north, it has many different features. Climate – colds winters; hot/humid summers, there winters were long cold and snowy. One may also ask, what were the main economic differences between the northern and southern states? The northern economy relied on manufacturing and the agricultural southern economy depended on the production of cotton. The desire of southerners for unpaid workers to pick the valuable cotton strengthened their need for slavery.What were the important similarities and differences between the North and the South?Agriculture was the center of their economy because it made need for more slaves. Most of the Civil War was fought in the South. They wanted to expand slavery. They did not have as many factories as the North.