Foreign Diplomacy In The Civil War Essay

, Research Paper

The Civil War caused both the North and the South to try to get help from England and France. These powerful countries could definitely help one side defeat the other. Both sides worked very hard to get the other one to join them. They caused a great deal of hardship to both sides and at the same time helped them in many ways. This will show how foreign diplomacy will effect the civil war in numerous occasions.

In 1860 and 1861 American and Britain relations were the best they had been in 60 years. The Prince of Wales made a 29-day tour of the U.S. as a mark of friendship.

England would be the focal point of the U.S. Lincoln wanted to keep England neutral because if they joined the confederacy British ironclads would have broken the blockade and fired at northern cities. They couldn’t take the chance of the British joining the south so they kept them neutral.

England thought the war was over slavery, which England had long been against. Newspapers in Britain favored the North. Lincoln feared saying the war was totally about slavery because if he did the crucial border states of Maryland. Kentucky, and Missouri would join the Confederacy, because they all had slavery and depended on it. He was then forced to say he was fighting to preserve the Union. To England and outsiders the cause of the South was to free itself from the domination of the North. A number of British liberals, not seeing Lincoln’s hands tied on slavery, thought his efforts to force one section to do one thing using bayonets as immoral. The London times wrote:

The contest is really for empire on the side of the North, and independence on that of the South.

The majority of English journalists were therefore unfriendly to the North because they saw it as the South wanting to be free. The London Punch called Lincoln a boor, braggart, and even the devil. The New York Herald replied back saying bad things about England. The North was angered by them saying these things because England was supposed to be with them because they were against slavery.

British unfriendliness was concentrated in England’s upper class because they could relate to the “gentleman” southerner more than the noisy and “vulgar” northerner. The British aristocrats had long hated the “demon democracy” and had long expected and been waiting for an end to a “detestable” democratic experiment.

The U.S. also was a growing commercial competitor and a menace to Canada and other British land’s in the western hemisphere. If the U.S. split into two the South would have no tariff and sell it’s cotton cheap to England and France, which had a huge textile industry. Senator Hammond of South Carolina said in 1858, “No, sir, you dare not make war on cotton. No power on earth dares make war upon it. Cotton is king.” The Civil War also presented Europe with the best chance ever to take land in North America. If the U.S. was spilt into two countries they would fight with each other and be less inclined to fight with distant nations.

England grew 50 percent of its cotton from the South and would very much like a free- trade with the South. Prime minister Palmerston put it best by saying “We do not like slavery, but we want cotton, and we dislike very much your high tariff.” Many powerful liberals thought the war was over slavery and democracy and that Britain should stay out of the war.

Britain also did not want to get involved because of the fear of Yankee Privateers. Britain could also reep huge profits from selling goods to the North. The most potent force was probably the working English class. They had read Uncle Tom’s Cabin and thought the war was over slavery and the preservance of democracy.

Britain did somewhat secretly help the south. Large shipments of guns and other supplies of war were shipped to little English islands in the Bahamas and the Mexican city of Matamoras. From Matamoras supplies would go over land. From the Bahamas they would try to break the blockade.

On May 4, 1861, unofficial news reached London that Lincoln had issued a blockade proclamation. A few days later London issued a proclamation of neutrality. They did this so Yankee privateers’ would not seize English ships. The south liked the proclamation because they could still send privateers to British ports.

It was more to the advantage of the North though, it strengthened the blockade and did not fully recognize the independence of the South. British officials were astonished by the bitterness of the North. England thought it would help the North would see it as helpful to them, but they only saw it as helping the South.

On June 1, 1861, London issued a proclamation forbidding armed ships on both sides to bring their prizes to British ports. It meant almost nothing to the Union because the South had no merchant marine they could take. It was a huge blow to the South who heavily relied on bringing their prizes to British ports.

In 1861 England felt rather neutral to the Union until they captured the Trent. In late 1861, the Confederates sent two of their best statesman, James M. Mason and John Slidell, to England and France to get help for the South. They got past the blockade and reached Havana where they boarded the mailsteamer Trent. Captain Wilkes of the warship San Jacinto, acting without orders from Washington, was waiting north of C