Quote:
Originally Posted by Sanjuro
The unbelievable part would have been getting Parliament to agree with the war; especially after the War of 1812 had led to a stable, mutually-acceptable peace and the longest undefended land border in the world.
Now, if the Confederacy had followed Longstreet's advice (in The Killer Angels anyway) and freed the slaves before attacking Fort Sumter; then I suspect British support would have been forthcoming...
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It's no secret that the British was ready and willing to assist the Confederacy, we had observors on the ground watching how things played out and reporting back on a regular basis.
Slavery was the only thing that kept us out of the war. Politicaly and strategicly a divided North America was in the best interests of the British Empire but as mentioned we could not support a slave-nation, it just wouldn't wash with parliment and at the time we held the position of "good guys" in the same way America does today, it was inportant to maintain a moral high ground.
Had the south freed the slaves I doubt very much that the Union could of prevailed and we';d have a very different history. The long reaching effects of two American states on world history is a fascinating concept when you look at the 20th century.