| Summary |
The purpose of this thesis is to analyze and evaluate Confederate diplomatic efforts to entice Great Britain to intervene in the American Civil War. The thesis first surveys the perceptions on both sides of the Atlantic before and during the sectional crisis of the 1850s. It evaluates the political and cultural kinship between the American South and England that helped to establish the perception that if war ever occurred between North and South, Britain would intervene on behalf of a Southern nation seeking independence. This impression rapidly evolved into a foregone conclusion following the solidification of the American South as the primary provider of raw cotton for English cotton mills, then the largest textile manufacturing nation in the world. The thesis will demonstrate both how the idea of "King Cotton" as an omnipotent diplomatic tool evolved, as well as why it ultimately failed to bring about any positive response from the government of Queen Victoria. The thesis also demonstrates conclusively that without Southern assumptions regarding the certainty of British military and political assistance, the Southern fireaters may well have lacked as strong a case for secession in 1861, following the election of Abraham Lincoln as president of the United States in 1860. |
