British involvement in US Civil War

[Popcorn]

I read somewhere a few years back that if the Trent Affair never happened the British might have eventually sided with the Union. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

[Jajasim]

I can't see it happening. Britain may not have hated the United States enough to support the Confederacy outright, but certainly they didn't like them enough to waste their own resources helping to put down the South either.

A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War by Amanda Foreman is an excellent book about the subject of Britain's involvement/non-involvement. It was a while ago I read it but I don't recall any serious notion of a pro-Union intervention from a British public figure or senior politician

 

[Fabius Maximus]

Another problem would be the Union's (un)willingness to accept explicit foreign help. Needing external support to put down a rebellion is not a good look for any country, particularly not in the prestige-obsessed 19th century.

 

[Daylight Savings]

Another problem would be the Union's (un)willingness to accept explicit foreign help. Needing external support to put down a rebellion is not a good look for any country, particularly not in the prestige-obsessed 19th century.

It also undermines their position that the South never actually left the Union because you can not leave the Union. And if the Confederates are still American citizens, you sacrifice a hell of a lot of legitimacy to let foreign troops attack them.

 

[Fabius Maximus]

It also undermines their position that the South never actually left the Union because you can not leave the Union. And if the Confederates are still American citizens, you sacrifice a hell of a lot of legitimacy to let foreign troops attack them.

True. Just think of the propaganda coup the original rebels had when the British government decided to send Hessian soldiers to help keep order in its North American colonies.

 

[M79]

Palmerston seems to have wanted to divide the US to prevent its rise as a challenger to British world influence. Had the British intervened, look for several potential countries to eventually emerge out of what are now Canada and the US.

 

[Hugh Third of Five]

I read somewhere a few years back that if the Trent Affair never happened the British might have eventually sided with the Union. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

You might see more individual Brits volunteer to fight for the Union (although there were plenty who did so in OTL) but direct intervention isn't going to happen. Lincoln would see it as an affront to Union sovereignty and although Palmerston was an abolitionist he wasn't going to help because he disliked the USA.