Wartime Diplomacy in the Civil War
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Wartime Diplomacy
Rebellions rarely succeed without foreign support. The North and South both sought British and French backing. Jefferson Davis was determined to secure such an alliance with Britain or France for the Confederacy. Abraham Lincoln knew this could not be permitted. A great "chess match" was about to begin.
Cotton was a formidable weapon in Southern diplomacy. Europe was reliant, on cotton grown in the South, for their textile industry. Over 75% of the cotton used by British came from states within the Confederacy.
By 1863, the Union blockade reduced British cotton imports to 3% of their pre-war levels. Throughout Europe there was a "cotton famine...