I’ve read that Britain was considering joining the war in support of the CSA. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which prevented them from joining because it would look as if Britain were supporting slavery. I’ve also read that Britain was putting troops in Canada just in case they did join the war.
I suspect England was very much involved in the war from the beginning.
They were afraid of the growing power of the USA and after 2 wars realized that they could never defeat us. So they decided to break us up into more manageable pieces.
Some have said that. But, in all the factory towns cross the UK they protested in favor of the northern states.
Some of the MPs did support the south and were promptly rejected at the next elections in the UK.
The Queen was sternly against the south. And the Queen was well loved in the UK at that time.
As I understand it was much cheaper to ship by water than land. Much of the Souths cotton went to England, made into cloth and shipped along with other manufactured goods backed to the South.
This gave the North a disadvantage.
So tariffs were started hurting the South and England. I’ve read the South was paying 75% of the taxes prior to the war.
I’ve read that Britain was considering joining the war in support of the CSA. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which prevented them from joining because it would look as if Britain were supporting slavery. I’ve also read that Britain was putting troops in Canada just in case they did join the war.
England was willing and able to support the South and would’ve loved to, but they were never convinced the South could win and didn’t want to deal with the aftermath of supporting the losing side. Their lack of support had nothing to do with a moral issue around slavery. It was all politics.
It was more the Battle of Antietam that ended the chance of British intervention. At that point, Confederate victory could not be guaranteed and it gave the British government pause. The Lincoln announced, and then implemented, the Emancipation proclamation and that ended the chance completely.
“I’ve read that Britain was considering joining the war in support of the CSA. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which prevented them from joining because it would look as if Britain were supporting slavery.”
That would make sense. I’ve read where the Emancipation Proclamation was done to garner support to continue fighting the war due to the North’s concerns of such a bloody conflict. The proclamation was made almost two years after the start of the war.
I’m guessing their were all sorts of reasons to free the slaves. One of which was to free the slaves.