The Burden Of Confederate Diplomacy

"Thoroughly researched . . . [Hubbard's] interpretation is solid, well supported, and touches all of the major aspects of Confederate diplomacy."--American Historical Review "As the first examination of the topic since King Cotton Diplomacy (1931), this work deserves widespread attention. Hubbard offers a convincingly bleak portrayal of the limited skills and myopic vision of Rebel diplomacy at home and abroad."--Virginia Magazine of History and Biography Of the many factors that contributed to the South's loss of the Civil War, one of the most decisive was the failure of Southern diplomacy. In this penetrating work, Charles M. Hubbard reassesses the diplomatic efforts made by the Confederacy in its struggle to become an independent nation. Hubbard focuses both on the Confederacy's attempts to negotiate a peaceful separation from the Union and Southern diplomats' increasingly desperate pursuit of state recognition from the major European powers. Drawing on a large body of sources, Hubbard offers an important reinterpretation of the problems facing Confederate diplomats. He demonstrates how the strategies and objectives of the South's diplomatic program--themselves often poorly conceived--were then placed in the hands of inexperienced envoys who were ill-equipped to succeed in their roles as negotiators. The Author: Charles M. Hubbard is associate professor of history at Lincoln Memorial University and executive director of the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Museum in Harrogate, Tennessee.

"Of late much interest has been shown in the public opinion and diplomacy of the period of the war of Southern independence. C.F. Adams, Jr., Henry Adams, E.D. Adams, J.F. Rhodes, J.M. Callahan, West, Jordan and Pratt, Bancroft and others have contributed to the literature of this subject. But with the exception of Callahan's pioneer work, the Diplomatic history of the Confederacy, written before any of the European archives for this period were opened, these writers have dealt only incidentally with Confederate diplomacy. None except C.F. and E.D. Adams has had access to the British Foreign Office papers, and none has had access to the French Foreign Office since it was only opened in the fall and winter of 1927-28. In view of these several facts, it seemed to the present writer that a diplomatic history of the Confederacy was not only desirable but essential to a clearer understanding of the history of this period ... In dispatching diplomatic agents abroad the Confederate government approached England, France, Belgium, Spain and the Holy See in Europe, and Mexico in America. Quasi-diplomatic agents these we are only incidentally concerned. Lamar, who was to go to Russia, was recalled before he had done so. Belgium, Spain, and the Holy See were minor objectives. It was primarily England and France with whom Confederate diplomacy and propaganda were concerned, for these two maritime powers held the fate of the Confederacy in their hands -- and the Confederacy for over a year, because of its monopoly of the cotton supply upon which these two nations depended, believed that it held the fate of those two countries in their hands"--Preface.

The Routledge Handbook of American Military and Diplomatic History provides a comprehensive analysis of the major events, conflicts, and personalities that have defined and shaped the military history of the United States. This volume, The Colonial Period to 1877, illuminates the early period of American history, from the colonial warfare of the 17th century through the tribulations of Reconstruction. The chronologically organized sections each begin with an introductory chapter that provides a concise narrative of the period and highlights the scholarly debates and interpretive schools of thought in the historiography, followed by topical chapters on issues in the period. Topics covered include colonial encounters and warfare, the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, diplomacy in the early American republic, the War of 1812, westward expansion and conquest, the Mexican-American War, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. With authoritative and vividly written chapters by both leading scholars and new talent, this state-of-the-field handbook will be a go-to reference for every American history scholar's bookshelf.

An immigrant to Mobile from Switzerland becomes a passionate promoter of the Confederacy

Drawing on the archives of London banks and the papers of statesmen on both sides of the Atlantic, this text explores the United States' foreign debt during the mid-19th century, a crucial but previously neglected aspect of the Civil War period.

The period encompassed by this volume—with the start of the Civil War and World War I as bookends—has gone by a number of colorful names: The Imperial Years, The New American Empire, America’s Rise to World Power, Imperial Democracy, The Awkward Years, or Prelude to World Power, for example. A different organizing theme would describe the period as one in which a transformation took place in American foreign relations. But whatever developments or events historians have emphasized, there is general agreement that the period was one in which something changed in the American approach to the world. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of U.S. Diplomacy from the Civil War to World War I contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 1,000 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about diplomacy during this period.

It was no coincidence that the Civil War occurred during an age of violent political upheaval in Europe and the Americas. Grounding the causes and philosophies of the Civil War in an international context, Andre M. Fleche examines how questions of national self-determination, race, class, and labor the world over influenced American interpretations of the strains on the Union and the growing differences between North and South. Setting familiar events in an international context, Fleche enlarges our understanding of nationalism in the nineteenth century, with startling implications for our understanding of the Civil War. Confederates argued that European nationalist movements provided models for their efforts to establish a new nation-state, while Unionists stressed the role of the state in balancing order and liberty in a revolutionary age. Diplomats and politicians used such arguments to explain their causes to thinkers throughout the world. Fleche maintains that the fight over the future of republican government in America was also a battle over the meaning of revolution in the Atlantic world and, as such, can be fully understood only as a part of the world-historical context in which it was fought.