Well this is another (if) topic. What if Confederation won the war? What would have happened in the North America? What would it look like in North America today? I am not arguing that the south had a chance to win on their own against industrialized north, nope they didn't stand a chance... but it is possible if the British had given south aid in the form of unlimited supply of weapons and other materials on loan or even directly intervention. If that really had happened, would the two sides keep fighting from time to time in the last 100+ years? Would either side expand toward the west and reach Pacific? Would there be a third or more countries exist in North America today?
Ok, imagine this scenario. The North loses the battle of Gettysburg, and coming hard on the heels of the big defeat at Chancellorsville just two months earlier, Washington finds itself surrounded by numerous Confederate forces. Remember Gettysburg is actually north of Washington, in Pennsylvania. Lincoln comes under intense political pressure to come to a negotiated peace deal with the South and finally is forced to accept terms which allow the South to secede and maintain slavery in all the states of the new republic governed from Richmond. Up to here, fantastic for the South. But let's look at the long term consequences. The economy of the South is based essentially on large scale cash crop farming, mainly tobacco and cotton. It is not self sufficient like the North. Apart from the disgusting, inhumane monstrosity of enslaving human beings, slavery is economically a primitive way to run an economy. What you're doing is keeping a substantial proportion of the population in misery, unable to access consumer products that you yourself are producing. And you're sacrificing all their talent and creativity that could be much better harnessed in a free democratic society. So in 1870 the North would be a populous, industrial thriving nation, probably better off than it had been in 1858 after having ditched the economic dead wood of slavery in the South. The South would still be a backward unindustrialised economy based on latifundia. As enormous new territories opened up in the North and Mid-West, IMHO they would have mostly opted to become part of the more prosperous and democratic North. West of the Confederacy, the states are quite arid eg New Mexico and Arizona. Indeed these last two states were the last 2 states to join the US on the continent, in 1912. They wouldn't have offered much in the way of wealth to the Mississipi slave driving aristocracy around 1870.
Actually, the south did stand a chance. You may have heard of the H.L Hunley. This was the first U.S. submarine to successfully sink its target and the confederates controlled it. They stood just as much a chance of winning as the union did.
I also believe that the South had a chance to win the war in the first 3 years up to Gettysburg, before the stranglehold of the Union blockade led to critical shortages of supplies to to the Confederates. At the beginning of the war, the South's military power on the battlefield, led by great generals such as Stonewall Jackson and Lee, was superior to the North who had some pretty ropey generals before they got organised. The key point for me was the fight for Gettysburg. Have you seen the movie "Of Gods and Generals" , the scene where the Confederate army slips past any Union vigilance in the woods near Chancellorsville overnight, then come out in one massive sledgehammer attack on the unwitting and unwitting Union flank? Amazing sequence, all historically valid. Many of the Union troops caught with their pants down that morning were recent German immigrants, unable to speak English! If Jackson hadn't been killed by friendly fire by his own picket lines while on a somewhat reckless probing of Union positions that night, Gettysburg may well have gone the other way 3 months later.
Well if South won the war, it not necessarily mean the Confederation would stay industrialized for long. They would soon find the need to develop their own industries after trade with northern states become unavailable. Not to mention the British might see it as a perfect opportunity to pop up a strong south to counter the north. They (the British) have done that all the time (India vs Pakistan, Iraq vs Kuwait, etc.), I really don't see why the British wouldn't want divide and conquer on their former north America colonies.
I think that if the South had won the war, the landscape for the United States would look a little bit different. I am from the South and we have a different way about us than the Northerners. There's nothing wrong with either side, we're just different. There's a different flow to the day...there are different customs and mannerisms. In the South, we take care of each other. There is a sense of family that is based on friendships as well as blood. We have a kinship with nature than doesn't seem to exist in the North. Of course, I am a little biased, but I do think that the US might be less industrialized and still more agricultural. I am not really sure how much different it would be, but I do think that there would be a big difference in how the US looked.
I think today we've all but forgotten the bitterness of the civil war. Sure, none of us were alive, but it gets passed down from generation to generation. There are still quite a few people, however, who have a hatred to the north.
Having a hatred for the North is unbelievable-I'd like to meet one of these folks and find out if that's true-how could they possibly still care? Are these people that have been living so far back in the hills they have to pump in sunshine???
Thing would have been very much like they are now. Slavery would have continued for probably another decade, but of course such an injustice would have been stopped. Civil rights probably would have taken place earlier because people would not have stood that oppression for so long. Probably more blacks would be in a position of power. After fighting so hard against civil right, the South seemed to have adjusted to it much better than the North.
I believe the "hatred for north" is a myth. I have seen southerner chat online and pointed it out that it's not true. Such myth is more in the head of people who live in the north, rather the truth. I remember in X-files one episode some weirdos living on a farm in the south talked about "war of northern aggression" lol... but again that's just TV media, not real. If South had won the war and neither side has been completely defeated, would south race north to expand westward? Would two sides still be two different countries today or it would have reunite at some point?
I think we would still be one big country, but attitudes would be different; there might be more intermingling of customs than there is now.
Confederation broke away from the Union, if South won the war, it can't possibility be one country any more. It would be more like China vs Taiwan today, or India vs Pakistan, with possible foreign powers backing each side. I know the British were selling weapons to the South during the civil war. If South won the war, the British would probably trying to do their best to use South to keep North in check.
I was born and raised in the south, but I fear what would have happened if the south had one. Would there still be slavery today? Would we be in a war with the north still?
There would not be slavery as it was back then-I don't believe slavery would have survived those days no matter who won.
I think if the south had won, slavery would not be here today as well. Eventually it would have been phased out and someone would have said this is wrong and we shouldn't be doing this. I'm not sure how the south would look today if the north hadn't won.
I think we would still have great food! Grits, pancakes, sweet potato pie.....all the great Southern food that makes my mouth water.....
I love them too. I think that if the south had won, grits would be on the menu at every restaurant in the nation. I really love grits, even though I have northern blood in me. I don't understand how some people don't love them. They're amazingly good!
I hate Paula Dean. She gives a really bad name to the south and is the typical southern stereotype. There are many people who aren't like that here.
Yes, I'm sure there are- I like her cooking-maybe she's a stereotype, but she can cook some good food-in my opinion.
