So their miscalculation lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands. But their underlying reason for the attack, according to your earlier post, was 'just a matter of pride'. Six dead or six hundred thousand dead, it's still a petty reason for going to war.
It was a real possibility that Lincoln could have simply turned over the keys and walked away from this conflict. I don't know that History would have turned out better had he done so, but I'm pretty sure it would have saved over 600,000 lives.
He could have. But all those lives could also have been spared if Davis didn't choose to bombard the fort. It is just as valid to blame him for the war, perhaps more so.
When we broke from the British we sent them a Declaration of Independence. At that point, what was formerly the property of the crown, became the property of the United States. Do you want to claim that it remained British Property?
Actually we broke well over a year before the Declaration of Independence. And the Founding Fathers recognized that they would have to fight for what they wanted. They didn't expect the British just to turn over property that didn't belong to them. Why did Davis?
“those lives could have been spared if Davis didn’t choose to bombard the fort”
But the war wad not fought to avenge the fort. It was fought on the pretext that the South was insurrectionary. Ft. Sumter did not make them so; declaring I dependence did. Had Cuba, for instance, bombed us out of Guantanamo at any time in the last 100-plus yeats we might have occupied them and made them a state. But the world would realize that wasn’t justified by their attack, but rather an act of pure imperialism. Which is the exact right term for the Civil War.
Wars fought as payback for stolen or damaged property are not wars of conquest. Therefore wars if conquest—as was the Civil War—are not fought as payback for stealing or damaging property. Now, you could say the Confederates shoulda known Lincoln would use Sumter to do what he really wanted, which was to treat confederates as rebels, and therefore blame Jeff Davis for hundreds of thousands of deaths. But that’s a bit like blaming the rape victim for wearing a short skirt.
That makes it all the more tragic. It is one thing to fight a costly war for an important principal, but It appears to me that the civil war actually started as a pissing contest over a bone of contention that neither side needed, but couldn't stand the dishonor of not having.
Had the Confederates just ignored it, Fort Sumter would likely have been eventually abandoned by the US. Arrogance was the cause of the Civil War. Not all of the Confederates were that stupid. There were several in prominent positions, that after hearing about the Reinforcement letter begged their colleagues to refrain from undertaking any military response. They pointed out that the Northern States were at peace with the Secession, and the only thing an attack would do would be to stir them up into hatred like a nest of Angry Hornets. They turned out to be exactly right.
He could have. But all those lives could also have been spared if Davis didn't choose to bombard the fort. It is just as valid to blame him for the war, perhaps more so.
Yup. It was a dumb move. Time was on the Confederates side. All they had to do was wait. Pressing their claims to the Fort after years of peace between the USA and the CSA would have strengthened their legitimacy in the eyes of everyone involved. They would have won a waiting game I think.
Actually we broke well over a year before the Declaration of Independence. And the Founding Fathers recognized that they would have to fight for what they wanted. They didn't expect the British just to turn over property that didn't belong to them. Why did Davis?
Probably because he was addressing a Nation that just Broke away from England using the same principal which he was invoking. He naively assumed that a country which was established by that principle, would respect that same principle. Silly bugger he, eh wot? But it remains, attacking the Fort was a bone head move.
If Lincoln had walked away from the slave states, WWI would have included a Civil War like blood bath with the slave south and the industrial north allied variously with England and Germany during the First World War. Germany attempted to get little Mexico to soak off US forces during WWI, they would certainly have done the same with anyone else they could have.
The successful suppression of the rebellion prevented what could likely be a string of wars between various rump states.