<Ul> <Li> Politics of United States </Li> <Li> Political parties </Li> <Li> Elections </Li> </Ul> <Li> Politics of United States </Li> <P> The Republican Party, also commonly called the GOP (for "Grand Old Party"), is one of the world's oldest extant political parties . It is the second oldest existing political party in the United States after its primary rival, the Democratic Party . It emerged in 1854 to combat the Kansas--Nebraska Act, an act that dissolved the terms of the Missouri Compromise and allowed slave or free status to be decided in the territories by popular sovereignty . The party had almost no presence in the Southern United States, but by 1858 in the North it had enlisted former Whigs and former Free Soil Democrats to form majorities in nearly every Northern state . </P> <P> With its election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and its success in guiding the Union to victory and abolishing slavery, the party came to dominate the national political scene until 1932 . The Republican Party was based on northern white Protestants, businessmen, small business owners, professionals, factory workers, farmers and African Americans . It was pro-business, supporting banks, the gold standard, railroads and high tariffs to protect factory workers and grow industry faster . Under William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, it emphasized an expansive foreign policy . </P>

What event spurred the creation of the republican party