Quote:
Originally Posted by Oberon
If America had remained split into two entities when the First World War broke out, would either entity have intervened in Europe?
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Of course that depends on how the south was able to defeat the north and what happens in the intervening time.
If the British had helped the Confederates I seriously doubt that the Union would help them defeat Germany. It's hard to imagine it now but in 1914 there was a considerable amount of anti-English sentiment still left over from the Revolution and war of 1812. Interfering in our Civil War would have stoked that dislike to white hot intensity. The British would have been lucky the Union states didn't join on the Kaisers side.
Another possibility to consider had the Confederates won the Civil war was that they would likely soon have fragmented into individual nation states. Given their fierce sense of independence and separate national identity it's not an unreasonable assumption to make. In that event you'd be getting the help of probably less than all of them with no guarantee those that did send troops would be willing to work together.
Finally there is the potential for more wars between the American states after 1865. A Confederate win would not have settled anything. In the following 50 years there would have been plenty to fight over without the unresolved issue of slavery. The Confederacy might not have been able to help fight the Germans because they were fighting wars of their own.