The US has only had one civil war, thus far. Egalitarianism was the craze among the elites globally around the 1700's through 1800's. There were efforts made to invest into people whose communities, clans, and families weren't, or unable to, invest into them. The elites sought to cultivate a citizen whose interests were better aligned with their own as their neighboring countries began to industrialize. They sought to industrialize their countries and produce better equipped/supported soldiers to defend the country's interests. You'll also notice the explosion in literacy around the European world at that time.