Assuming the Confederates States gain European recognition to back their independence be 1862-1863, how differently would a second war between the USA and the CSA be fought if conflict broke out in the 1880s?
How different would a second war between the USA and CSA be in the 1880s?
- Thread starter AceOfSpades
- Start date
US probably wins. The effects of industrialization and immigration would be even more pronounced in the North by the 1880s, whereas the South would continue to fall behind, lacking in manpower and war industry. Only way the south wins here is if the North gets too demoralized to fight.
Well simply put all the racial and social issues the South experienced from reconstruction onwards are likely to be cranked up to eleven. At the same time there will not be a north to bankroll said reconstruction. The Confederacy will be bankrupt, its currency experiencing insane inflation, a significant percent of its population will be less than eager to support the government if not actively fighting it, and the central government was weak as it was. All of this while the CSA (in the top ten most industrialized countries iirc) has to field one of the largest and best equipped armies on the planet to keep the second most industrialized country in the world (iirc) from just steamrolling them.
For the norths part several decades of likely significant military expenditure, no sudden end to government investment in industry and no massive financial burden to rebuild the south puts them in a much better state. Expect the war to hard fought, brutal and possibly protracted but if the north is seriously committed the outcome will never be in doubt.
For the norths part several decades of likely significant military expenditure, no sudden end to government investment in industry and no massive financial burden to rebuild the south puts them in a much better state. Expect the war to hard fought, brutal and possibly protracted but if the north is seriously committed the outcome will never be in doubt.
Assuming the CSA alienates Europe with its refusal to abolish slavery, would such a war conceivably last shorter or longer than the Civil War in OTL?
Way, WAY shorter.
The only reason the War lasted as long as it did irl was because the North was absolutely not prepared for war with the South on the onset of the civil war. Thanks to the Mexican-American war, most of the US's experienced soldiers and officers were from the south by the time of the Civil War, which was the main reason for the decent number of confederate victories early in the war. It was only once the Union was able to shift it's industry to a wartime economy and successfully levy and train troops, along with a change in leadership that the Union was able to bring it's might to bear.
In this timeline there would be plenty of experienced soldiers and officers left over from their version of the civil war, and would be able to have plenty of preparation and planning beforehand. This combined with the much stronger and way more prepared industry of the North - including probably better military technology - along with much larger pool of manpower would probably make for an embarrassing defeat for the south like the Germans did with the French in the the Franco-Prussian war. In fact the war might be over in as little as 6 months. Resistance efforts from the confederates would continue for much longer considering a much stronger confederate identity would be forged from their years of independence, but at the end of the day the North would absolutely beat the shit out of them - if you'll excuse my french.