I was thinking about something a little less mundane than the power structures of the world. I was thinking about social attitudes- when the CSA reads some of the stuff about contemporary racial attitudes (that which isn’t the Afrikaaner propaganda), there might be some changed minds. Could there be eventually civil rights established for minorities in the CSA? Possibly around the early 1900s/1910s? Also, reading about what eventually happens in the decolonized/Western-caused trouble zones (Middle East, China, etc.), would the CSA intervene at all? I was thinking about a secret organization with rooms that have huge charts/timelines, and Confederate agents pouring over them, noting butterfly effects, checking the progress of history, etc.) If there’s Encarta on the Macs the Afrikaaners had, all bets are off.
Technologically, couldn’t the CSA rise to the very top? Even if there’s no actual technical data, they could still look in the right directions. For example, take penicillin, discovered by accident. They would read the history, and start experimenting with molds immediately. Lots of inventions would be discovered ahead of schedule. Of course, they would do some sort of pact thing to limit them, so that the world doesn’t suspect the CSA as some sort of magical place. I think in order to protect such discoveries, the CSA wouldn’t try to fight in wars in America at all, unless they came up with more weapons from the future. 1800s tanks, anyone?