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The American Civil War and International Diplomacy: 1861-1865
In 1861, eleven states seceded from the United States to form the Confederate
States of America and, over the course of the next four years, the U.S. fought to bring the Confederate States back under
control. During the Civil War the Confederacy repeatedly sought international support for its cause, often calling upon foreign
reliance on its cotton exports to obtain it. The Union, on the other hand, strove to prevent other nations from recognizing
the Confederacy as a legitimate nation and from getting involved in the American conflict. In an attempt to starve the Confederate
economy and to cut it off from its international supporters, the Union engaged in a blockade of Confederate ports--a move
that was of questionable legality in international law. Despite the Confederacy's significant international commercial ties,
the lack of definitive military victories for the South, and the success of Union efforts to link the Confederacy with the
institution of slavery ultimately prevented any of the European powers from officially recognizing or supporting the South.
Source: U.S. State Department
NEW! Recommended Reading:
King Cotton Diplomacy: Foreign Relations of the Confederate States of America. Description: On its initial publication King Cotton Diplomacy was hailed as a definitive study of Confederate foreign affairs.
It was most highly acclaimed for its fresh interpretations of the reasons why England
and France refused to grant recognition
and aid to the Confederacy. Harriet Chappell Owsley presents a new and revised edition . . . and has in many places tightened
and improved the literary style, but she has permitted the new volume to retain both the substance and the flavor of the earlier
edition. Continued below...
This book is
the exhaustive, definitive study of Southern attempts to gain international support for the Confederacy by leveraging the
cotton supply for European intervention during the Civil War. Using previously untapped sources from Britain and France, along with documents from the Confederacy’s
state department, Frank Owsley’s King Cotton Diplomacy is the first archival-based study of Confederate diplomacy.
Recommended
Reading: Secret History of Confederate Diplomacy Abroad
(Hardcover). Description: One of the South's most urgent priorities in the Civil War was
obtaining the recognition of foreign governments. Edwin De Leon, a Confederate propagandist charged with wooing Britain and France,
opens up this vital dimension of the war in the earliest known account by a Confederate foreign agent. First published in
the New York Citizen in 1867-68, De Leon's
memoir subsequently sank out of sight until its recent rediscovery by William C. Davis, one of the Civil War field's true
luminaries. Both reflective and engaging, it brims with insights and immediacy lacking in other works, covering everything
from the diplomatic impact of the Battle of Bull Run to the candid opinions of Lord Palmerston to the progress of secret negotiations
at Vichy. Continued below...
De Leon discusses,
among other things, the strong stand against slavery by the French and a frustrating policy of inaction by the British, as
well as the troubling perceptions of some Europeans that the Confederacy was located in South America
and that most Americans were a cross between Davy Crockett and Sam Slick. With France's
recognition a priority, De Leon published
pamphlets and used French journals in a futile attempt to sway popular opinion and pressure the government of Napoleon III.
His interpretation of the latter's meeting with Confederate diplomat John Slidell and the eventual mediation proposal sheds
new light on that signal event. De Leon was a keen observer and a bit of a gossip, and his opinionated details and character
portraits help shed light on the dark crevices of the South's doomed diplomatic efforts and provide our only inside look at
the workings of Napoleon's court and Parliament regarding the Confederate cause. Davis adds
an illuminating introduction that places De Leon's
career in historical context, reveals much about his propagandist strategies, and traces the history of the Secret History
itself. Together they open up a provocative new window on the Civil War.
Related Reading:
Recommended
Reading: Union in Peril: The Crisis over British
Intervention in the Civil War. Review: The Lincoln
administration feared that Great
Britain would officially recognize the Confederacy during
the Civil War, thereby granting legitimacy to secession and undermining the U.S. Constitution. What did happen, and why, is
brilliantly described by Howard Jones in Union in Peril:
The Crisis over British Intervention in the Civil War. Continued below…
“An attractively
written, cogently argued study that merits a prominent place on the bookshelves of Anglo-American and Civil War scholars.”—Journal
of American History
(Journal of
American History)
“Jones
offers a fresh revision . . . on why England
failed to intervene in the American fratricidal struggle. . . . [His] book combines a delightful writing style with excellent
bibliography and footnotes. It is based on solid research, primarily in original sources. It is a work that will serve well
both the scholar and the general reader.”—American Historical Review (American Historical Review)
“Thought-provoking
. . . Jones does a laudable job of presenting both the British arguments for and against intervention and the foundations
of the crisis in the relationship between [Great Britain
and the United States].”—Library
Journal
(Library Journal)
About the Author:
Howard Jones, University Research Professor in history at the University of Alabama,
is the author of numerous books, including To the Webster-Ashburton Treaty: A Study in Anglo-American Relations, 1783–1843
and Course of American Diplomacy: From the Revolution to the Present.
Recommended
Reading: One War at a Time: The International Dimensions of the American Civil War. Review:
One War at a Time - Lincoln's axiom for Union diplomacy- refutes
the opinion of most historians and biographers that Lincoln played
only a minor role in U.S.
foreign relations. It reveals his continuing efforts to avoid a war with England or France while using the threat
of war to prevent European recognition of Confederate independence. Mahin covers Confederate efforts to obtain diplomatic
recognition, the construction of warships for the Confederacy in Britain,
the British role in the blockade-running operation, and the postwar "Alabama
claims" against Britain.
Mahin also provides the first full analysis of U.S.
and Confederate reactions to the French intervention in Mexico
and to the efforts to establish an imperial government in Mexico.
Recommended
Reading: Civil War High Commands (1040
pages: Hardcover). Description: Based on nearly five decades of research, this magisterial work is a biographical register and analysis of the people
who most directly influenced the course of the Civil War, its high commanders. Numbering 3,396, they include the presidents
and their cabinet members, state governors, general officers of the Union and Confederate
armies (regular, provisional, volunteers, and militia), and admirals and commodores of the two navies.
Civil War High Commands will become a cornerstone reference work on these personalities and the meaning of their commands,
and on the Civil War itself. Errors of fact and interpretation concerning the high commanders are legion in the Civil War
literature, in reference works as well as in narrative accounts. The present work brings together for the first time in one
volume the most reliable facts available, drawn from more than 1,000 sources and including the most recent research. The biographical
entries include complete names, birthplaces, important relatives, education, vocations, publications, military grades, wartime
assignments, wounds, captures, exchanges, paroles, honors, and place of death and interment. Continued below...
In addition
to its main component, the biographies, the volume also includes a number of essays, tables, and synopses designed to clarify
previously obscure matters such as the definition of grades and ranks; the difference between commissions in regular, provisional,
volunteer, and militia services; the chronology of military laws and executive decisions before, during, and after the war;
and the geographical breakdown of command structures. The book is illustrated with 84 new diagrams of all the insignias used
throughout the war and with 129 portraits of the most important high commanders.
Recommended Reading: Ordeal By Fire: The Civil War
and Reconstruction (816 pages). Description: Pulitzer Prize winning author,
James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era and For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War , describes the causes and origins of the Civil War; motivations and experiences of common
soldiers and the role of women; social, economic, political and ideological conflicts; as well as a comprehensive study of
the Reconstruction Era and its consequences. Continued below...
Professor McPherson also includes many visual aids such as detailed maps and comprehensive charts. “A
must have for the Civil War buff!”
Recommended Reading:
Lincoln Unmasked: What You're Not Supposed to Know About Dishonest Abe. Description: While many view our 16th president as the nation’s greatest
president and hero, Tom Dilorenzo, The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an
Unnecessary War, through his scholarly research, exposes the many unconstitutional decisions of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln Unmasked, a best-seller, reveals that ‘other side’ – the inglorious character
– of the nation’s greatest tyrant and totalitarian. A controversial book that is hailed by many and
harshly criticized by others, Lincoln Unmasked, nevertheless, is a thought-provoking study and view of Lincoln that was not taught in our public school system. (Also available
in hardcover: Lincoln Unmasked: What You're Not Supposed to Know About Dishonest
Abe .)
American Civil War International Diplomacy History, US
Confederate Diplomatic Efforts with England, France, Europe, European and International Foreign Recognition and Support
for Confederacy as a Nation, Foreign Country Effort for the Confederate States
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