Summary:
Envision the present-day world if the South had won the Civil War. The economic, social and international consequences would have created a very different world than the on we livein today. Would there have been the "United States" and the "Confederate States" of America?
Many people know that the Southern states of the Confederacy lost their slaves. However, many do not know the economical and physical effects that the nationwide war caused. This report will go over a few of the many effects that the war caused. These will include what happened to the slaves, the farmers and the economy itself. It will also go over what the world might have been like if the South had won.
First, we have the slaves. They might have been free but most of them remained at the farms where they had been slaves, to work for pay. The government had refused to pay the slaves enough money to get them on their feet and in a house. The slaves would receive a small pay and a place to sleep at the farms but most of them did not get any more than that. They could not get a job quickly and without money they certainly could not afford to get into a college or university; they got little to no education in the farms where they served so they did not even have that chance even if they had the money. The condition of the slaves that did not or could not return to the farms they worked at lived in deplorable conditions. Either they would die of sickness and hunger or they made their lives begging and doing odd jobs to make money to use for food.
As for what the government could have done was to suggest a different way to free the slaves. Allow the people to keep their adult slaves and send the children to school. By the time the slaves died off, the South would have become more modern and had the chance to give the African-Americans a leg up in opportunities to get a good job or a college education. In addition, segregation would not have been as much of an issue cause the generation of people that would see the first free African-Americans would have grown up and made friends with the many freed slaves. With the choice that the government made to free all the slaves, the issue of segregation continued into the 1960s because the Southern states white people still considered Negros as their subordinates.
After the Civil War, they found themselves suddenly without workers that they could afford to pay. Without the time in-between the Emancipation Proclamation and the slaves' freedom, that I mentioned should have been allowed, they found themselves losing their farms, houses and lives because they couldn't afford the pay of their workers. Most of the states would have industrialized by the time the slaves were free.
Now we will go over the economic effects. Most of the South made money on the fruit and agriculture, and good portions of the farms were parts of different battlefields when the farmers came back to their farms they came back to what was usually an empty building and fields overgrown by weeds due to the low amount of maintenance they had received. The only people who got off well were the Yankee sympathizers, and they did not get off too much better that the rest. With most of the battles occurring in the South, they returned to blasted out buildings and sometimes found their families long gone from their houses. Also with no workers to help run the farms, many families went bankrupt. As more and more families lost their farms to the state, quite a few of them left their farms and went to the Northern states and started working for the factory owners as their only way to make money. As the people either went to the North, they learned how to build these machines and came back to the South with designs to create new machines to improve their farms. When they got home they found out that the machines sold for much more profit and would start building the machines and selling them instead or alongside fruit. This is the only way the South was industrialized. Even then, the people who stayed behind were unable to fend for themselves easily. They had to find new ways to tend their farms because they could not use free labor; outside their children was always a price on people to take care of the upkeep of their farm. The farms would fall apart in the absence of the many workers needed to maintain the large plantations. As the larger farms' owners fell out of repair most of the smaller farms found easier ways to get around the significantly smaller prices to pay for workers. Soon they would start buying land from the larger landowners. Thus, the small business was born. The sheer amount of small businesses promised a large group of new stars to start shining in the business realm. People were able to start businesses at that time that could stay for a long time after. A man named William Barnett opened up Barnett Bank in 1871 and the bank has remained open until now and has changed its name to Bank of America. You see the times after the civil war were not as easy for the large companies as it was for the smaller farmers, although it affected both
This concludes the first part of my report. In it, I have shown you the effects of the civil war as it pertained to the South. The next part will attempt to explain what the world would be like if the South had won the civil war. There are many theories as to what the world will be like with the South being victorious. This part will explain three of them in short descriptions.
What if the South had Won"
The first pictures two countries, USA and CSA. The Confederate States of America also known as the CSA has slaves while the USA is slave-free. The CSA is now a respected nation among the many European powers and has established itself as a thriving agricultural super machine. The slaves in time become obsolete and many farmers start to buy machines so they do not have to worry about taking care of sick, injured, or dying slaves. Soon, the farms, with their production enhanced by the machines, would overflow the CSA with a large amount of money allowing them to buy many more machines. After a while, the production would stop increasing and the machines would stop selling as often unless a new model came out. This part of the country's finances would cycle continuously as a near constant gain. Meanwhile, most of the businesses in the CSA would undergo a switch to where they were more reliant on the agricultural merchandise in the land since that was the easiest and cheapest type of items available. By the mid-1900s, the CSA would become the largest agricultural power with most of the sold produce grown in the country. By about 1915, the USA and CSA would become allies during the first of the World Wars. The CSA would be the large supplier of food and medical supplies along with a large contingent of soldiers that would be a large percentage of the Allied forces. In addition, the CSA would be even more able to force the US's hand in the war. With the two countries of the American continent entering the war earlier than they actually did, they would end the war earlier than we experienced. In addition, the CSA might have had a positive effect on the treaty that the world forced on Germany. Most of the battles in the world war would definitely have had a dramatic difference from the attacks that the Axis forces repeatedly won in the beginning. Maybe the very presence of the CSA army could have made Hitler think twice about entering war.
Harry Turtledove presented the next situation in a book named "The Last Full Measure."(1) It pictures the USA and the CSA once again, but from the time the war ends, both countries have disputes over the boundaries between the two landmasses. Massacres of innocent merchants occur across the boundary states. Mexico plans to give a large piece of land to the CSA and, when the deal goes down, the USA proclaims war against the rival country. The two powers go at it toe to toe for a few months with many powers involved, making it the First World War. The war would leave only one nation left in the North American continent, the USA. Following the war the two parties most involved in elections would be the Federalist, or "Yankee" party, and the confederate, or "southern hick" party. The leading political party would be the Federalist Party for a few years; however, the years would cause the two parties to pitch more to the middle of the spectrum of political beliefs and the country would probably become much as it is now.
The last situation pictures our two countries next to each other. In addition, the tension between the two would grow high during their first few years. However, the US would grow tired and lax concerning the border between the two countries. A man known only as Jon once said, "If the South won the Civil War, they would not last long as a nation. Their dependence on slave labor and agriculture would render them "backwards." They would depend heavily on imports for technology before they would be forced to create their own. By then they would be so far behind that the country would probably collapse into a Communist/Fascist revolution. However, they would never to gain enough strength to be able to fight the US. I wonder how long the US would sit before going to fight, most likely with a huge technological advantage, to bring the South back into the Union. This may actually start a World War, since the great web of late 19th century Alliances would undoubtedly be thicker with yet another nation."(2)
At the end of that world war, the two countries would probably never be able to form a peaceful alliance until the mid 21st century.
Now we do not and cannot
Conclusion.
This report has attempted to demonstrate the effects the Civil War had on the Confederate states, and what the world would be like if they had been victorious. There is no way that anyone can explain all of the possibilities of what this world would be like if the South had won, however, this is the most concise report the someone can find written inside of two weeks research. There are bound to be many more questions that will originate from this report but I will answer them at another time. This is the conclusion of my report, I hope you enjoyed and learned something from it.
