[true_religion]

US tarrifs were originally intended to hurt Britain, as the US had recently rebelled against them.

The tarrifs then increased during every war the US had with Britain.

It’s no surprise that the US talks of trade wars, due to the way its history of tarrif is entangled with warfare, and dislike of the nations a tarrif is aimed against,

[bernawil]

It was quite literally a rallying point for Lincon and a reason for the civil war. Southerners wanted free trade to export tobacco and cotton. Northerners wanted tariffs and protection for their industries (both to make their factories more competitive against European manufactures as to get cheaper raw materials from American farmers).