So, hello everybody! This is my first post here after a couple weeks of lurking. I'm currently in the early stages of planning out a alt history where (surprise surprise), the CSA survives the ACW, with a few differences than the typical cliches (no foreign intervention, the CSA drags the war on until 1867 and wins a war of attrition and suffers a harsh peace, the CSA nosedives and certainly doesn't expand, causing a bunch of unrest and turmoil, leading to a libertarian socialist uprising (commie CSA is not new but it's usually some form of Marx-Leninism))
However, as I'm not exactly an expert on the CSA, and I'm still researching the South, I'm afraid I need help with how strong the Confederate government was. I've seen arguments that the CSA government was paradoxically stronger and weaker than the Unions, and am at a bit of a loss. So, that being said:
1. How did the Confederate constitution differ from the US? Did it favor the federal or states government more heavily than the US? I've also heard that it banned the states from abolishing slavery, is this actually true?
2. Would a independent CSA attempt to centralize around Montgomery (Richmond and both Virginias are lost to the Union as part of the peace) or leave things to the states?
If it would help, the terms of this scenario are that the peace that ends the Civil War is harsh and meant fully as revenge for basically bleeding the Union dry, and to speed up it's implosion. New Mexico and Arizona are lost, Missouri, Kentucky, and both Virginias are both firmly placed in the Union and the CSA renounces any claims to them.
Slavery is not abolished, both on a national and any state level, although there is one fringe party pre-Revolution that advocated a harsh Apartheid system that did not succeed. The South does not focus on industrializing. Any slave that manages to cross the border will be automatically considered "free", although slavery is never outlawed on a national level, the remaining slave states in the Union quickly abolish slavery themselves. The 14th Amendment comes a half decade late in the US because of this.
Thank you for your help!
However, as I'm not exactly an expert on the CSA, and I'm still researching the South, I'm afraid I need help with how strong the Confederate government was. I've seen arguments that the CSA government was paradoxically stronger and weaker than the Unions, and am at a bit of a loss. So, that being said:
1. How did the Confederate constitution differ from the US? Did it favor the federal or states government more heavily than the US? I've also heard that it banned the states from abolishing slavery, is this actually true?
2. Would a independent CSA attempt to centralize around Montgomery (Richmond and both Virginias are lost to the Union as part of the peace) or leave things to the states?
If it would help, the terms of this scenario are that the peace that ends the Civil War is harsh and meant fully as revenge for basically bleeding the Union dry, and to speed up it's implosion. New Mexico and Arizona are lost, Missouri, Kentucky, and both Virginias are both firmly placed in the Union and the CSA renounces any claims to them.
Slavery is not abolished, both on a national and any state level, although there is one fringe party pre-Revolution that advocated a harsh Apartheid system that did not succeed. The South does not focus on industrializing. Any slave that manages to cross the border will be automatically considered "free", although slavery is never outlawed on a national level, the remaining slave states in the Union quickly abolish slavery themselves. The 14th Amendment comes a half decade late in the US because of this.
Thank you for your help!