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Jefferson Davis was never elected president of a western hemisphere nation. He was the president of an alliance for rebellion which failed in its attempt to make itself into a nation. It did not win foreign recognition, it did not win acknowledgement from the legal government it wished to overthrow. It only ever asserted nationhood, it never achieved it.
I thought that Britain was the only country that recognized its independence
No England did not. European (England and France) was one of Lincoln's foreign policy nightmares. Slavery was the holdup for England. As it was, England replaced southern cotton with Egyptian cotton for it's mills so recognition wasn't needed.
Last edited by North Beach Person; 04-13-2009 at 01:15 PM..
Reason: spelling
No England did not. European (England and France) was one of Lincoln's foreign policy nightmares. Slavery was the holdup for England. As it was, England replaced southern cotton with Egyptian cotton for it's mills so recognotion wasn't needed.
Had Egyptian cotton not been forthcoming or available for Britain, they might very well have rendered support to the CSA and, with quite a different outcome to the war. This is a rarely mentioned factor, which I had not heard referenced in quite a few years.
Had Egyptian cotton not been forthcoming or available for Britain, they might very well have rendered support to the CSA and, with quite a different outcome to the war. This is a rarely mentioned factor, which I had not heard referenced in quite a few years.
Actually, Egyptian cotton was always available to Britain. The deciding factor just happened to be a bumper crop during 1862. Had it not been for a literal cotton glut, the British government was prepared to extend formal diplomatic recognition to the Confederacy. Another key point was that Britain was waiting to see whether the Confederate Army would pull off a tide-turning victory on the battlefield. Although there were some major victories on their part during 1861-62, the kind of rout being anticipated by Queen Victoria's government never happened. And that, combined with the cotton factor, wound up spelling doom for Mr. Davis & co.
Indeed, formal diplomatic recognition might have affected the conduct of the war greatly, since it would have been elevated into an international confrontation. France, then ruled by Napoleon III, was usually prepared to do anything Britain was not--and might easily have made an official alliance with the United States...thus kicking off what could conceivably have become the First World War!
Actually, Egyptian cotton was always available to Britain. The deciding factor just happened to be a bumper crop during 1862. Had it not been for a literal cotton glut, the British government was prepared to extend formal diplomatic recognition to the Confederacy. Another key point was that Britain was waiting to see whether the Confederate Army would pull off a tide-turning victory on the battlefield. Although there were some major victories on their part during 1861-62, the kind of rout being anticipated by Queen Victoria's government never happened. And that, combined with the cotton factor, wound up spelling doom for Mr. Davis & co.
Indeed, formal diplomatic recognition might have affected the conduct of the war greatly, since it would have been elevated into an international confrontation. France, then ruled by Napoleon III, was usually prepared to do anything Britain was not--and might easily have made an official alliance with the United States...thus kicking off what could conceivably have become the First World War!
Which raises this interesting question: With a genuine risk of a First World War, was the USA risking more than it could endure when it resisted the separation of the South? A determined stand that did NOT evolve into a World War only by the luck of the climate that year in North Africa.
Reputed to be "Thomas Jefferson still lives..." or a variation thereof. Some accounts have him merely mumbling Jefferson's name.
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