The War for Foreign Support

I. Question of possible foreign involvement

  • Absolutely critical—could have changed the course of the war
    • Confederates could not manufacture the war materiel they needed (weapons, ships, etc.)
  • South optimistic about getting British/French support
    • Napoleon III inclined to recognize the Confederacy but will only do so if Britain takes the lead
    • Britain takes a “wait and see” attitude—wants to see what happens on the battlefiel
    • But the general feeling in Europe in 1861-62 is that Union is dead

II. Union blockade

  • One of Lincoln’s first major strategic decisions
    • Understands the South’s dependence on manufactured goods from Britain & their need to export cotton
    • But the coast line 3,550 miles long
      • And the US Navy had only around 40 usable ships
      • Immediately launched shipbuilding efforts; ended up with close to 700 by war’s end
  • At first, blockade very ineffective
    • Even in 1864, US Navy capture only 1 of every 3 Confederate vessels
    • Still, blockade prevents critical materials and equipment from getting through 

III. Implications of the blockade

  • Effect on European economy/textile mills?
  • Question of international law
    • Imposing a blockade was an act of war between two belligerent nations
      • This means that, in effect, Lincoln is recognizing the Confederacy as a hostile nation
    • European nations must decide how to view the conflict
      • Is it a proper war b/n nations, or an uprising? Stakes are huge.
        • Lincoln and North call it the “War of the Rebellion”
    • Moreover, international law says that for a blockade to be valid, it must be effective
      • North under great pressure to show that the blockade is effective

IV. King Cotton

  • Scholars like Sven Beckert and David Surdam have mapped the importance of cotton to the British empire.
    • By 1860, Britain was importing over a billion bales of cotton, 88% of which was coming from the American South. The French, likewise, imported 93% of their cotton from the U.S.
  • Cotton formed the basis of Britain’s textile industry, which directly and indirectly sustained 1/5 of the British population.
  • Give the South what turns out to be misplaced confidence

V. British “neutrality”

  • May 1861, Britain declares its neutrality
    • Implication: treating the war as one between two belligerent nations
      • Recognizes the Confederate as a nation with certain rights (such as the right to contract loans and purchases weapons)
      • Other European nations follow suit
      • North is furious
        • Sees a first step toward recognition
        • Anti-British sentiment surges
  • To most Europeans, Union cause looks doomed

VI. Trent Affair

  • Two Confederate envoys, James Mason and John Slidell, taken from a British ship, which is stopped and boarded Capt. Charles Wilkes
    • Wilkes claims the envoys as contraband of war
    • He’s hailed as a hero in US
    • Brits are aghast
      • Demand immediate release of prisoners and apology
      • Begin gearing up for war
        • 3,000 troops sent to Canada
        • Suspend trade relations
  • Lincoln overrules popular sentiment; backs down
    • Releases men; no apology, though
    • Closest the South gets to winning recognition/support

VII. Diplomats

  • Union has the upper hand
    • Confederates initially send William Yancy
      • Fire-eater with no experience
  • Union has Charles Francis Adams
    • Son and grandson of two presidents, both of whom served as ministers to Britain

VIII. Southerners embargo cotton

  • Not a government policy; people do it on their own, following hotheaded newspaper writers
  • Doesn’t play out as they expected
    • Britain actually has significant amounts stored up
    • Cotton shortage doesn’t immediately materialize
    • By the time it does, other nations have moved to fill vacuum
      • Cotton production in India, Brazil, etc.
    • Textiles had already begun to lose their dominant role in the British economy
      • North begins relying more and more on British trade; relationship strengthens (ships, woolen goods, etc)

IX. South’s failure to win recognition

  • Crop failures in Europe
    • 1862: Britain importing 40% of its wheat from US (North)
    • British Economist declares: “without these importations, our people could not exist at all.”
  • Britain resents Confederates highhanded policy; see as blackmail
  • Realpolitick
    • Concerned about balance of power in Western hemisphere
    • In the end, Britain doesn’t want to weaken the blockade as an instrument of war
    • Doesn’t really want to go to war again after Crimean War
      • Overstretched militarily

X. Popular sentiment in Europe

  • Though not democracies, Britain and France still had to consider popular opinion
    • Concerned about popular rebellion
  • In general, European aristocrats tended to sympathize with Confederacy; British labor leaders and the working class with the North
    • However, many British observers were actually very skeptical about the Emancipation Proclamation
      • Thought it was a cynical move; feared it would lead to violence uprisings by blacks in the South