AHC: Earliest/latest possible American Civil War
- Thread starter Medibee
- Start date
Tallest Skil
Banned
Earliest is probably in the late 1850s after Trist dies (or isn’t chosen) and a different negotiator nets us all of the Guadeloupe-Hidalgo claims.
Latest... maybe no civil war and the last state emancipates in the 1880s or so after Virginia emancipates in the early 1800s on its own?
Latest... maybe no civil war and the last state emancipates in the 1880s or so after Virginia emancipates in the early 1800s on its own?
To be perfectly truthful, it really, truly does depend on the POD. Generally, though, I'd go for a range of between 1850-80 for something mostly similar to OTL's Civil War(in one TL I did, The 1827 Shuffle, I had it start in 1870).
If you can somehow kill slavery before the cotton gin is invented, there won't be a civil war no matter what.
There's always the possibility that South Carolina decides to go through with its threats in the Nullification Crisis or some similar shitstorm indirectly caused by its interests as a slave state and has to be brought kicking and screaming back into the union. Maybe that counts, maybe not.
Latest can be decades after OTLs Civil War. Secession doesn't gain the support of as many states and the South loses quickly due to the changes in warfare towards the end of the century. Again, it might not count.
The Civil War was preceded by a decades long Cold War of representation, economics, and demographics over the slavery question. Any point where the South could begin to lose, like the election of 1860, is plausible.
There's always the possibility that South Carolina decides to go through with its threats in the Nullification Crisis or some similar shitstorm indirectly caused by its interests as a slave state and has to be brought kicking and screaming back into the union. Maybe that counts, maybe not.
Latest can be decades after OTLs Civil War. Secession doesn't gain the support of as many states and the South loses quickly due to the changes in warfare towards the end of the century. Again, it might not count.
The Civil War was preceded by a decades long Cold War of representation, economics, and demographics over the slavery question. Any point where the South could begin to lose, like the election of 1860, is plausible.
Last edited:
Alternatively, a POD where the Mexicans fare better, or even win the US-Mexican war might galvanize the South into seccession earlier, perhaps making a "stabbed in the back" myth of being abandoned like with Nazi Germany.