Old Abe Pulls a Dubya

What if, in a means to divert the division over slavery, Lincoln decides to wage a war with another nation in an effort to bring the US together, in a time of war, instead of it splitting akin to the OTL.

So who could the USA pick on in late 1860 - early 1861?

Would this war be successful & the Civil War adverted as a result?

Or would the Southern States still secede meaning the Civil War is still fought at some point in time regardless?

Anything else?
 

MrP

Banned
Mexico, I'd say. The USN is too small to go up against the British or the French navies. America lacks the finance and powder stores to go up against Britain/Canada. I suppose America could have a determined go at conquering Japan or some impoverished African or South American nation, if you prefer. But I'd say Mexico. Convenient location. Only problem is if the French are still interfering. If they are, then naval problems again, because the French will whip the USN's arse - no disrespect to the USN intended - and land troops pretty much at will.
 

NapoleonXIV

Banned
What more could we take from Mexico? We'd already annexed more than half of it and we'd end up making the French look like the good guys.

Japan's too far away, (and also might have just kicked our ass up behind our ears, as they might have to anyone except England at the time, modern or not) Canada still has Britain as an ally.

Spain might work. We could go after Cuba and the Caribbean possessions. Another slave state for the South.

Or how about Brazil or some other South Am nation. It should be fairly easy to insert ourselves into one or another of the ongoing wars down there. What if the US was into that Paraquayan thing that killed 90% of the males, oh, we'd be greatly loved in Latin America.
 
It was never about slavery, it was about the Morrill Tariff, other tariffs, the drive towards a mercantilism and centralization. Just look at what Lincoln said, he wasn't going to touch slavery, but he was going to expect that the South would accept and collect all tariffs.

I believe Seward had made a suggestion of attacking Britain in order to unify the country. Perhaps the US will attack a small Caribbean nation so that Lincoln could repolulate it with the blacks he expects to free in the future. I would almost expect that most people would know that the US was initiator of any hostilities. Don't see it ending any way but unpleasant for the US and Lincoln asking his cabinet what to do next. Its possible that a four way way of session may happen, the South, Old Northwest and New England going their seperate ways.
 

MrP

Banned
It was never about slavery, it was about the Morrill Tariff, other tariffs, the drive towards a mercantilism and centralization. Just look at what Lincoln said, he wasn't going to touch slavery, but he was going to expect that the South would accept and collect all tariffs.

I believe Seward had made a suggestion of attacking Britain in order to unify the country. Perhaps the US will attack a small Caribbean nation so that Lincoln could repolulate it with the blacks he expects to free in the future. I would almost expect that most people would know that the US was initiator of any hostilities. Don't see it ending any way but unpleasant for the US and Lincoln asking his cabinet what to do next. Its possible that a four way way of session may happen, the South, Old Northwest and New England going their seperate ways.

IIRC, Seward was still being an anti-British idiot up till about Christmas '61, when a cabinet meeting pointed out that a war over Trent would crush the Union's finances. Whereupon he wrote some article shamelessly depicting the handing back of the CSA's representatives to Britain as a victory for America in relation to the War of 1812. Balss of brass, that man! :D
 

67th Tigers

Banned
Spain might work. We could go after Cuba and the Caribbean possessions. Another slave state for the South.

Spain was a fairly substancial power (and was right into the 1880's when it started to fall behind as its finances collapsed) with a more powerful navy than the USN, and a substancial army in Cuba.

However, it's probably the most balanced war you're going to get....
 
Spain was a fairly substancial power (and was right into the 1880's when it started to fall behind as its finances collapsed) with a more powerful navy than the USN, and a substancial army in Cuba.

However, it's probably the most balanced war you're going to get....

There's also the problem that the Southern states seceeded before Lincoln took office, and not before. So unless Lincoln campaigns on some foreign war platform which completely and totally eclipses his past history, I don't see how this could happen.
 
I'd say some South American nation, or Latin America just for the amount of build up it would require for an invasion. We could have the Northern navy, Southern leadership, and all manner of infantry having to work together to go fight so "evil" down south.
 
What about the US financing one of Walker's filibustering attempts? I'm sure that reintroducing slavery to some Latin American country would make Lincoln more popular in the South.
 
Notice that everyone is assuming that Dubya went into Iraq for cynicial reasons.
I don't think Lincoln had the personility for this.
 
I believe Seward had made a suggestion of attacking Britain in order to unify the country. Perhaps the US will attack a small Caribbean nation so that Lincoln could repolulate it with the blacks he expects to free in the future. I would almost expect that most people would know that the US was initiator of any hostilities. Don't see it ending any way but unpleasant for the US and Lincoln asking his cabinet what to do next. Its possible that a four way way of session may happen, the South, Old Northwest and New England going their seperate ways.

Bermuda? The Bahamas?
 
The Republicans in 1856 could decide to have a compromise candidate, featuring their OTL candidate (Fremont?) and maybe Buchanan, Breckinridge, or Jefferson Davis. The Compromise platform would propose to invade Haiti, and maybe Brazil. I don't know how strong Holland was at the time, but the US could do to Indonesia the same it did to the Phillipines in OTL.
 
Mexico or South America. The government could covertly finance a group of filibusters to head south and do a lot of the dirty grunt work. The U.S. Army can then sweep in to "restore order."

Don't think it would be led by Walker, though. He had been captured and executed by the time the Civil War started.
 
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