<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> 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>
what event spurred the creation of the republican party
what event spurred the creation of the republican party
the Kansas -- Nebraska Act
the Kansas -- Nebraska Act