Trent War and all the drama...

[ReconGuy02]

What it would take for US to ask Britain and CSA for peace had Trent war gone hot? AoNV ravaging MD and PA? Besieged Washington? Loss of Maine and northern NY?
And overall, how you think Trent War would turn out, if it really did go hot?

 

[Jared]

Britain: USA would essentially be asking for peace on the basis of status quo ante bellum as soon as war broke out. Lincoln really didn't want war with Britain, and Britain really didn't want war with the USA. (Britain believed that the USA was forcing them into it). While it's possible for the two sides to blunder into war if there's a lot of mistakes from everyone, there will be considerable pressure on both sides to end the war as soon as possible. I'd expect any realistic Trent War to be a fizzer.

CSA: Would probably need the CSA to find a way to advance to New York City, or at least Philadelphia. (In other words, not happening.) Or a long war leading to a peace of exhaustion, but that requires the CSA to do the equivalent of rolling a lot of 6s even to survive.

 

[cjc]

When the us realizes that it can no longer continue the war whith any hope of success. When that happens depends on a lot of factors but I probably won't take a year for the war to get to that point.

 

[Alternator]

A Trent War requires multiple PODs over an extended period (possibly pre-dating the American Civil War itself) to create enough bad blood between the United States and the British Empire for said war to trigger. Once initiated, it extends exactly as long as the British decide to be unreasonable (because Lincoln would have already offered to do anything reasonable to avoid the war), and it'd be almost entirely a naval campaign - the British aren't going to be interested in waging a hugely expensive invasion of the United States, and the United States can't easily free up enough manpower to successfully invade Canada.

The Confederacy are still fucked, because the British are going to be co-belligerents rather than allies, though if the British decide to properly break the Union blockade they'll last a fair bit longer.

 

[Sarthak]

You can read this.

Trent Affair Goes Hot

What if cooler heads didn't prevail during the Trent Affair Crisis and open war ensued? Lincoln famously said "one war at a time". Could the U.S. have called on Russia who promised to help in the event of war, even leaving ships in a NY port? Would the war be the U.S., Russia, possibly Prussia...

www.alternatehistory.com

 

[cjc]

A Trent War requires multiple PODs over an extended period (possibly pre-dating the American Civil War itself) to create enough bad blood between the United States and the British Empire for said war to trigger. Once initiated, it extends exactly as long as the British decide to be unreasonable (because Lincoln would have already offered to do anything reasonable to avoid the war), and it'd be almost entirely a naval campaign - the British aren't going to be interested in waging a hugely expensive invasion of the United States, and the United States can't easily free up enough manpower to successfully invade Canada.

The Confederacy are still fucked, because the British are going to be co-belligerents rather than allies, though if the British decide to properly break the Union blockade they'll last a fair bit longer.

Would it really tho? Like the ultimatum Britain made to the US was specifically made that anything other then acceptens would lead to war, yet it took 3 days of arguing Lincoln down that Britain was being serious and that international aberration was not the best way to both keep his standing in the Union and to playkat the British. Lincoln could be stubborn at times, if he keeps whith is gut in that situation instead of listening or stwert then Palmerston gets his war.