Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Confederate States

The Confederate States of America were commonly known as the confederacy and they consisted of 11 southern states that seceded from the Union in 1860. The confederacy formed in February of 1861 within the existing territory of the United States by seven slave states; South Caroline, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Texas, and Louisiana. They declared their secession from the United States following the November 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi and Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia served as president and vice president, respectively, of the Confederacy. The confederacy wrote their own constitution, established a new capital at Richmond and chose Jefferson Davis as President. Four other slaves’ states

Constitution as a template. The drafters of the Confederate constitution made sure their federal government was relatively weaker than the governments of the individual states. The United States was a federation of states bound by a strong central government, the south was a decentralized confederation of states loosely allied with each other for common defense. In many ways, the confederacy resembled the United States under the Articles of Confederation. As it turned out though, the confederacy’s weak central government proved to be a major handicap during war. One of the greatest weakness the confederacy had was how difficult it was for Davis’s government had in controlling the individual states which was the same problem the national congress had faced under the Articles of Confederation. Davis did attempt to assemble a national army to match the powerful Union forces but the Southern states did not work together to facilitate the undertaking, and Davis had no real way to force the state governors even refused to let their troops cross state lines to assist fellow Confederates who needed backup. Also, just like the national congress under the Articles of Confederation, the confederate government had serious financial troubles throughout the war because few states paid their fair share. Because the central government had trouble keeping

Britain did assist the confederacy and allowed southern ships to use its ports and even build confederate warships like the Alabama. British ship builders also agreed to build two ironclad warships with Laid rams, which the confederates could use to pierce the hulls of enemy ships. Although the British did depend on the south for cotton, the confederate government overestimated Britain’s cotton dependence, the British textile manufactures had bought from the south only because it was cheaper. Eventually it became clear that British textile manufacture had bought from the south only because it was cheaper. The union blockade of southern ports temporarily hurt the British textile industry, the industry ended up bouncing back quickly after switching to cotton suppliers from Egypt and India. The confederacy was unable to break through the union blockade, they weren’t able to buy goods or sell cotton and because of the they experiences a massive economic collapse in 1862 and never recovered. Private banks and individual states printed their own money on cheaper paper to counter the depression but this only worsened the situation by causing inflation. The inflation that the confederate government was going through eventually