What If the South Had Won the War?

The Civil War turned a nation against itself. Brothers fought against brothers, fathers killed sons, neighbors turned against neighbors. As we know, the North won, but not without a price; over 600,000 men were killed and the South was left in total ruin. This war secured the government we have today and made it possible for all people, no matter what ethnicity, to have equal rights. What would have happened had the North not won? Where would America be now if there had been a sudden twist of events that caused the South to win this war? I believe if the South had won the war, the North and the South would eventually evolve to be similar in beliefs and government.

The South's victory in the Civil War would have allowed it to secede from the Union and be recognized as a separate, independent nation, which had been its goal going into the war. Government in the North would have most likely become a similar version of what we have now, a democracy with a strong central government. The South, on the other hand, believed in a weak central government and strong individual states, making sure no person or group of people could have too much power. This version of government would have made it difficult to enforce laws, collect taxes, and sustain a disciplined army (this same problem occurred early on in American history before the Constitution was written). The South, after finding out that a weak government causes problems, would adopt the same type of government as the North. The switch of government would prove that the South and the North were still very similar, even if they were two separate countries.

If the South had won the Civil War, it would have created strong alliances between France and Britain. Britain and France had thought about giving financial support to the South during the war. In this event, the two countries would have distanced themselves from the North in support of the South, cutting off much of the North's trade and forcing it into a small economic depression. Eventually, after much of the bitterness of the war had subsided, Britain and France would strike up trade once more, because of the South's lack of industries. Later, there would have even been some trade between the South and the North. Of course, the South would become more industrial without the North to rely on (as it had after the Reconstruction Era) but it would remain agricultural and never become industrialized to the extent of the North. Westward expansion would have been stunted in the South it continued to fall further behind in technology, because of its lack of industries, compared to the North. While the South was concentrating on farming cotton and tobacco, the North would have continued to move westward and settle, enlarging the country. Eventually, the North would have a larger population (because of the many jobs in factories) and more land for those people to live on.

The abundance of people and land would cause the North to be larger and more powerful than the South, which was still technologically stuck in the late 19^th century. The South, after realizing how far behind they were, would begin to move forward in regard to technology, but would progress at a much slower rate than the North without large factories and industries. As the two countries moved forward in time, the North would have constantly been technologically in the lead. The South would continue to progress along the same path, showing that the two countries, though divided, were still very similar.In the North, slavery still would have been abolished, even though it would most likely have happened after the war, not during. Just as they had done before the war, slavery sympathizers would have continued to help slaves escape North where they would be free. In the South, slavery would have lived on well after the Civil War, but it wouldn't exist in 2008.

Sometime from the mid-20th to the 21st century slaves would be replaced by machines, causing slavery to die out. Still, the African-Americans would have horrible racial prejudice to face (remembering that America had still been very prejudiced against blacks up until the 1960s and the Civil Rights movement) and they probably would not have gained citizenship or the right to vote until much later, because the Southerners would have feared that they would overturn the government with that power. Because of the segregation and prejudice, many African-Americans would have moved North and West (just as they had after the South had rejoined the Union) where they could vote and participate in government. Women's suffrage would have happened in the North around the turn of the century and, even though it would take a while, women would be allowed the same rights as men. In the South it would have been longer before the women took a stand and would have been over half a century later than the North in allowing women rights. Even now in 2008 it would still be a fresh idea for women to vote and have jobs in government. Women and African Americans holding government jobs and voting would have been old news in the North, but in the South it was still a fresh idea. The fact that, eventually, both woman and African Americans were allowed citizenship and the right to vote in the North and South shows that these two separate countries were still quite similar.

If the South had won the Civil War, there would have been little hope for the Union to ever be restored. The North would have continued to grow and advance forward, ending up similar to the United States now, while the South's growth would be stunted before it began to catch up with technology and acknowledge civil rights. The similarity in the paths they would have taken, though, shows us that although the North and the South were two separate countries, they were still similar in their government, technology, and civil rights.