Greatest Possible Balkanization of South?

During the Civil War, Virginia was partitioned into two states. There were plans like this for East Tennessee, North Georgia, and the Rio Grande. How much could the Union split up Southern states, and how would this effect post-war politics?
 
post civil war the union would not necessarily want to partition more southern states- more states = more southern senators once they get re-admitted which would not be a good thing.
 
post civil war the union would not necessarily want to partition more southern states- more states = more southern senators once they get re-admitted which would not be a good thing.

Agreed.

West Virginia seceded from Virginia due to local efforts and not at the behest of the Federal Government.
 
post civil war the union would not necessarily want to partition more southern states- more states = more southern senators once they get re-admitted which would not be a good thing.


Depends on how it is sliced up. Most likely you get a bunch of Southern Unionist states. Of course that would mean (hard as this is to be believed) Reconstruction becomes even more mild but the Republican Party would likely gain seats in the South.
 
post civil war the union would not necessarily want to partition more southern states- more states = more southern senators once they get re-admitted which would not be a good thing.

The areas getting partitioned were areas that were predominantly Unionist. It would not be the South getting more votes, necessarily, since the areas were mostly inhabited by yeoman farmers as opposed to the planter class.
 

jahenders

Banned
As noted, the North may have only wanted new states if they were likely to produce pro-Union (generally Republican) votes.

However, Congress put a lot of different rules in place for what different states had to do to be readmitted to the Union. If Congress/President pushed for a slightly different (possibly harsher) reconstruction, they could produced some "balkanization" in the process, either:
1) Mandating some splits. For example, Texas had previously (when originally admitted to the Union) had to give up a lot of claimed land in exchange for debt relief. Congress could have said, "You've incurred more debt here, so you need to give up this specified land." That could either go to neighboring (non-CSA) states or become a new state.

2) Imposing harsh requirements for readmission but allowing portions of states to "secede" to avoid them. For instance, they could make it hard for a plantation state to rejoin, but allow citizens of areas that didn't apply to to form their own state that could easily rejoin. The remainder of the state would then have to accept the split to rejoin.

During the Civil War, Virginia was partitioned into two states. There were plans like this for East Tennessee, North Georgia, and the Rio Grande. How much could the Union split up Southern states, and how would this effect post-war politics?
 
Depends on how it is sliced up. Most likely you get a bunch of Southern Unionist states. Of course that would mean (hard as this is to be believed) Reconstruction becomes even more mild but the Republican Party would likely gain seats in the South.

Mild? Do you mean more radical?

Tennessee can easily be partitioned. Same goes with the states that seceded after Fort Sumter.

I think Reconstruction would be more radical for the non-partitioned and secessionist states and nonexistent for the Unionist counter-secessionist states.
 
Mild? Do you mean more radical?

Tennessee can easily be partitioned. Same goes with the states that seceded after Fort Sumter.

I think Reconstruction would be more radical for the non-partitioned and secessionist states and nonexistent for the Unionist counter-secessionist states.


You have a point, the Republican can sell it as "getting back at the planters" to the Poor Whites of East Tennessee and West Virginia and the Germans of whatever you carve out of Texas hated the CSA anyways .
 
It would certainly produce an interesting debate when Texas v. White or a similar case comes up towards the end of Reconstruction.
 
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