Failed Diplomacy
In the early days of the Confederacy many of its leaders were reliant on the sale of cotton to Great Britain and France to help achieve what the Confederate States never gained – international recognition as an independent nation. In this they ignored the fact that the European powers had other sources of cotton besides the American South – Egypt was one – and the British were dependent on large amounts of imported foodstuffs from the Union.
When the United States bluntly warned the British that recognition of or overt support for the Confederacy would mean war with the United States it was taken to heart by British leaders. Despite this several prominent British political figures advocated for support of the Confederacy for diverse reasons. The Confederates failed to capitalize on this early support and after Lincoln made the war in part a crusade to abolish slavery the potential for British intervention ended.
French ruler Napoleon III supported the idea of the UK and France issuing a joint recognition of the Confederate States, but the threat of war with the US was too much for the British Parliament to swallow, especially as British economic interests were strongly tied to the United States.
Both the French and the British did provide some support to the Confederacy, over the loud protests of the Lincoln administration. British shipyards built several blockade runners for the use of the Confederate Navy and opened their ports to Confederate ships. France provided a loan of $15 million through several financiers and capitalists, most of which was used to acquire ships.
The question of European intervention came to an end in the summer of 1863 when several European military observers reported the devastation of Lee’s army at Gettysburg, and the nearly simultaneous fall of Vicksburg. With those two events it was evident that the South could not prevail and unwilling to antagonize the United States further, talk of European support of the South came to an end.