It's that time of year again when I start kicking around my Confederate victory TL idea, only this time I'm not looking for clever workarounds to make it at least somewhat plausible because, quite frankly, I don't believe it is. So instead we're going the tried and true route of not losing the Plan 191 plans --> another Confederate victory --> Britain and France intervening because reasons --> the Confederacy getting ridiculously more in the peace than they'd ever reasonably get away with (which will probably be revealed in a footnote or something, because there's no way in hell I'm working out the actual details for this bullshit). Hey, it's good enough for Turtledove.
The reason I want them to make out like bandits in the peace deal is that, well, I fully expect this disaster of a state to collapse under the weight of its own corruption and so want to show it's inevitable no matter what sort of sweetheart deal they get (also, if I'm going the TL 191 route I might as well go whole hog). I mean, we're talking about a nation that is not equipped socially, economically, politically, or morally to deal with the realities of an industrialized world, and is unlikely to change.
But perhaps those are just my own biases speaking. What do you think would happen?