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To: jmacusa

Not in good shape. For starters, the Confederacy isn’t going anywhere good. Assuming that it doesn’t break up (which is a very real possibility), it would probably become a giant banana-republic. It would probably be beholden to the European great powers for security against the US and for investment. A poorly educated nation with an economy centered around exporting agricultural goods, lacking a large native body of businessmen and professionals (the South relied heavily on Yankees and foreigners to run businesses and industry), I could easily see the result looking like the South America of the time - a mess of bitter, divided, petty nation-states, deeply in debt to Europe, and highly influenced by them, a target of gunboat diplomacy. International pressure would probably lead to slavery being outlawed by the 1890s at the latest, but in its place would be legislation that would make Jim Crow seem moderate by comparison.

The Union wouldn’t be much better. If secession is proven as a doctrine, other states or territories might splinter off, and this could lead to a more tumultuous, violent, or even increasingly centralized or authoritarian America in the future. The nation might be less desirable as a destination for foreign migration. There had been talk by Seward of invading Canada to compensate for the potential loss the South, but I can’t see that going well, and hopefully cooler heads would prevail. America would now be facing a potentially hostile state or collection of states right next to its core regions, and would have to devote its energies to creating a larger military to defend its borders, instead of focusing on the West and economic expansion. US prestige internationally would suffer greatly, and without the additional population, territory, and economy of the South, American development would be stunted.


21 posted on 04/12/2013 2:44:52 PM PDT by JerseyanExile
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To: JerseyanExile

Yeah, so much better than what Lincoln gave birth to, Obama and the nanny state. I think you’re on the wrong web site. DU is more suited to you.


63 posted on 04/16/2013 4:03:24 AM PDT by Lee'sGhost (Johnny Rico picked the wrong girl!)
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