British leaders personally dislike American republicanism during…
1852 CE to 1863 CE
Prince Albert is effective in defusing a war scare in late 1861.
The British people, who depend heavily on American food imports, generally favor the United States.
What little cotton is available comes from New York, as the blockade by the US Navy shuts down ninety-five percent of Southern exports to Britain.
In September 1862, Britain (along with France) contemplated stepping in and negotiating a peace settlement, which could only mean war with the United States, but in the same month, US president Abraham Lincoln announces the Emancipation Proclamation will be issued in January 1863, making abolition of slavery in the Confederacy a war goal.
As support of the Confederacy now means support for slavery, there is no longer any possibility of European intervention.
However, the British working class are quite overwhelmingly pro-Union.
In the end, although Britain can survive without Southern cotton, the North's meat and grain is more important to feed the UK's urban population, especially as a series of bad harvests had affected British agriculture in the late 1850s to early 1860s.
Meanwhile, the British sell arms to both sides, build blockade runners for a lucrative trade with the Confederacy, and surreptitiously allow warships to be built for the Confederacy
The warships cause a major diplomatic row that will be resolved in the Alabama Claims in 1872, in the Americans' favor.
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