re: Worst Historical Disaster — Civil War or Second Great Awakening?

You've got to go back even more. For me, it starts with the Enlightenment. I believe the Enlightenment was a good thing, because it kind of put some ideas in our Founding Fathers' heads, so we got independence out of that. Then, France erupts in their own revolution (due a lot to the success of ours). Napoleon stabilizes France, but then starts fricking shite up all through Europe. Alliances formed to stop him, but borders had been shifted and nationalism immediately began to rise. Meanwhile, mini-revolutions erupt across Europe and the United States goes to war with itself. Europeans send people to observe the tactics we're using to kill each other and they take it back with them. Suddenly, Italy becomes a country. Germany becomes a country. Several small (but deadly) wars are fought. Then boom... Gavrilo Princip fires two shots that start the nastiest war the world had ever seen, until 20 years later. But in the meantime, people partied themselves into poverty and the government got bigger. They started taking more of our money and they've never looked back.