Within Alternate History, one of the most common scenarios is a British American war
during the American Civil War.
While many events are brought up for this possibility, one of the most common is an
event known as the Trent Affair, and in this video, we will be looking at what the Trent
Affair actually was.
Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, had dispatched these envoys to secure British
and French recognition as a sovereign nation.
Britain and France had maintained their diplomatic relations with the United States following
the outbreak of the Civil War and had recognized the Confederacy as a belligerent power, but
not a sovereign government, in early 1861.
Davis sought to change this by negotiating with these nations for full diplomatic recognition,
largely through the use of heavy cotton shipments to these states, something, known as King
Cotton Diplomacy, that figured that the shortage in the textile mills in both Britain and France
would force both governments to recognize the nation in return for regular cotton shipments.
Official recognition would not only lend credibility to the Confederacy for its bid of independence
but would also pave the way for lucrative trade deals between the powers, and they would
force the Union to give up on blockading southern ports, as they lacked the naval arm to fight
against the European fleets.
Davis hoped that the recent victories against Union troops would make the governments favor
the envoys much more.
In October 1861, James Mason and John Slidell, two of the diplomats sent, slipped through
the U.S. naval blockade and left Charleston, South Carolina for Spanish Cuba, from there,
they took passage for England on the Trent.
U.S. Captain Wilkes intercepted the Trent on November 8, 1861 and, without permission
from Washington, ordered his lieutenant to board and search the ship.
The U.S. boarding party took Mason, Slidell, and their secretaries as prisoners, but allowed
the Trent to depart for England without taking the ship as a prize, which was the original
intention of Wilkes.
Initial reaction on both sides of the Atlantic to this was strong.
The United States, publicly celebrated this turn of events as a victory against the Confederacy
and a blow to Confederate diplomacy.
The British, on the other hand, strongly protested Wilkes�s action as illegal and a violation
of their neutrality and demanded the release of the captive Confederate envoys as well
as a formal apology.
Although British officials continued to advocate a policy of neutrality, they did sent over
20,000 regulars to Canada, raised the Canadian militia, and sent naval reinforcements to
the Western Hemisphere, in the advent that war did occur.
Neither the United States nor Great Britain wanted war, but it was clear that, at best,
the Trent incident had sparked a major diplomatic disagreement and, at worst, appeared to have
pushed Great Britain and the United States towards armed conflict.
There was a huge worry is war between these two did occur.
British India was the only source of Saltpeter for the Union for a time, and Britain exported
a large amount of weaponry and munitions to the nation as well.
The U.S. economy was soon hit by the effects as well.
On December 16, the actions of the British cabinet reached New York and the stock exchange
fell across the board, with government securities dropping by 2.5 per cent and the sterling
exchange rising by two points, with an overall suspension seeming imminent.
On December 30 the banks voted by 25-15 to suspend specie payments.
Banks across the country soon followed them, with only those in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky
continuing to redeem in coin.
This suspension left the Treasury unable to pay its suppliers, contractors or the armed
forces.
The Treasury was thus forced to issue out Fiat money known as Greenbacks, which is the
standard currency of modern day.
Thanks to a communication malfunction, the cable containing the early reaction and demands
of Britain took almost a month to arrive in Washington.
By then, emotions had cooled on both sides and calmer heads prevailed.
Nevertheless, the British still expected a response from Abraham Lincoln and continued
to emphasize that Captain Wilkes had acted without official authorization.
The Lincoln administration understood that it would be unwise to risk an armed conflict
and moved to smooth things over.
The U.S. Minister to Great Britain assured the British that the United States did not
want a war and advised President Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward that they
should conform to some of the British demands.
On December 26, 1861, Seward presented an official note summarizing the Lincoln administration�s
position to Lord Lyons, the British Minister to the United States.
Seward defended Wilkes� action, although he conceded that Wilkes had erred by not seizing
the Trent and letting a court affirm the legality of taking the envoys.
Nevertheless, Seward agreed to release the prisoners.
Lyons, under orders from London, accepted this explanation thereby diffusing the crisis.
Ultimately, President Lincoln and Secretary Seward were satisfied with this outcome.
However, the Trent affair confirmed that the British were willing to defend their position
of neutrality in the American Civil War, neither side wanted to re-ignite old scars, and tempers
between the two nations continued to calm as the years went on, and the main point for