American Civil War Blunders and Diplomatic Failures

"War does not determine who is right - only who is left."

--Bertrand Russell

In the middle of the 19th century the United States was engaged in one of the bloodiest conflicts in the history of the nation known as the American Civil War. The U.S. was at war with a first time enemy known as the Confederate States of America. The southern states had succeeded from the Union and with the battle of Fort Sumter, the war had begun. Both the Union and the Confederates had one goal in mind, respectively. For the North it was to defeat the rebellious states and bring them back into the Union and for the South it was to achieve recognition as an independent country from abroad. The war lasted four years and resulted in over one million casualties including over 600,000 deaths for both sides combined. This was all due to the fact that the North and the South would continue to make mistakes through the four years that would lead to the prolonging of the war. Actions taken by both the Union and the Confederacy resulted in the hurting of their diplomatic goals abroad, thus hurting the ultimate achievement of their goals.

One of the first steps that the Confederacy took to hinder its goal of independence would actually happen several years before the start of the war. With the possibility of a conflict with the northern states looming largely in the minds of the citizens in the southern states, precautions began to be put into place. With this, the idea of what would later become known as the King Cotton policy was beginning to be accepted. In a speech given by a former Senator James H. Hammond of South Carolina in 1858, Hammond described the importance of the southern crop and that a lack of cotton being exported would do much more damage...

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