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The Confederacy's Plan to Conquer Latin America
mentalfloss.com ^ | 2017 | Erik Sass

Posted on 06/20/2020 10:49:45 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege

In the years leading up to the Civil War, many Northerners and Southerners alike wanted the federal government to take a more aggressive approach toward acquiring new territory. In fact, some private citizens, known as filibusters, took matters into their own hands. They raised small armies illegally; ventured into Mexico, Cuba, and South America; and attempted to seize control of the lands. One particularly successful filibuster, William Walker, actually made himself president of Nicaragua and ruled from 1856 to 1857.

For the most part, these filibusters were just men in search of adventure. Others, however, were Southern imperialists who wanted to conquer new territories in the tropics...

The Confederate constitution included the right to expand, and Confederacy president Jefferson Davis filled his cabinet with men who thought similarly. He even hinted that the slave trade could be revived in "new acquisitions to be made south of the Rio Grande."

During the Civil War, Confederate agents attempted to destabilize Mexico so that its territories would be easy to snatch up after the war. One rebel emissary to Mexico City, John T. Pickett, secretly fomented rebellion in several Mexican provinces with an eye to "the permanent possession of that beautiful country." Pickett's mission ended in failure in 1861, but fate dealt the South a better hand in 1863. French Emperor Napoleon III seized Mexico, and the move provided the South with a perfect excuse to "liberate" the country after the Civil War.

Of course, Mexico was just part of the pie that the South hoped to inherit. Confederate leaders also had their eyes squarely on Brazil—a country of 3 million square miles and more than 8 million people.

(Excerpt) Read more at mentalfloss.com ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: 1856; 1860; 186011; 186104; americana; brazil; breckinridge; confederacy; confederados; cuba; filibuster; godsgravesglyphs; jeffersondavis; johnbreckinridge; latinamerica; lincoln; matthewmaury; mexico; napoleoniii; newtexas; nicaragua; privatearmies; slavery; slavetrade; territorialexpansion; williamwalker
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To: shanover

GIVE ME A BREAK, THE CSA DID NOT INTEND ON CONQUERING OR OVERTHROWING THE US GOVERNMENT IN DC.


21 posted on 06/20/2020 1:31:33 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

A laughable pile of bile. This crap would make for a nice fantasy/history NOVEL.


22 posted on 06/20/2020 1:32:51 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: central_va

There were a few Southern fire brand types, that opined about the future expansion of the new Confederacy into parts of Mexico, Central America and Cuba. None of these radical thinker’s ideas ever grew beyond wistful thinking.


23 posted on 06/20/2020 2:37:54 PM PDT by Bull Snipe
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To: DiogenesLamp

The South was an immediate economic threat, and over time would likely become a territorial threat.

Is that not how the South felt?
They did not want to over throw the federal government
and replace it, they just wanted to leave it.


24 posted on 06/20/2020 2:44:10 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: shanover

Slavery was the cancer that killed the Confederacy


25 posted on 06/20/2020 2:48:16 PM PDT by AppyPappy (How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?)
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To: AppyPappy
Slavery was the cancer that killed the Confederacy

Hardly. Had they remained in the Union, the slavery would have simply continued unabated.

What killed the Confederacy was the fact they were a real economic threat to the powerful interests then controlling Washington DC, and which still control it today.

They used their influence to get the government to destroy their economic competition before it damaged them severely.

26 posted on 06/20/2020 4:00:26 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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27 posted on 06/20/2020 10:09:51 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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