What Would the World Actually Be Like if the South Won

only out of desperation, not because it was the right thing to do

I can absolutely imagine something like that happening.

Well yes pressure from the other countries would of lead them to end slavery, so they would look good in the eyes of the world. Also this would make it so the USA couldn't say they had the moral high ground over the CSA.

Many of the generals in the south thought they should have ended slavery when they declared war, so they could get support from Britain. If the war dragged on for lets say another 4 years and the South won, it would have more than likely been from British intervention, which would not occur if the South still had slavery.

Well lets remember something. When slavery was ended, blacks still didn't have many rights. In the CSA, this would have been even more extreme. Any civil rights movement by blacks would have been violently suppressed. Groups like the KKK would be pretty much government supported. Blacks would have it very rough, and it would take a very long time for the whites in the South to change ideas and begin to give more rights to blacks, if ever.

As for Southern foreign relations, I'd imagine they would be interested in taking advantage of an unstable Mexican situation, and possibly purchasing Cuba and other islands of that sort from Spain as the Spanish Empire fell apart. The CSA probably would have established a sphere of influence across much of South America, possibly supporting a United South America such as the one Francisco Solano López envisioned when he started the war of the Triple Alliance. Napoleon III would have looked for support from them in Mexico. The CSA and USA would have had a very dangerous and touchy border, with other wars possibly happening.

Domestically, I'd imagine the CSA would have a democratic government, but would not have been very centralized because of states rights. The CSA president would probably have to constantly been juggling the needs of all the different states at once. Their economy would be agriculturally based at first, but the CSA would slowly industrialize in Georgia, the Carolinas, Florida, Virginia, and Texas, while the rest of it would have likely been the "breadbasket of the South". The South probably would have been very class based, almost to the point of having castes. Only the wealthy would be officers and politician, the middle class would own large farms and have managerial positions, and pretty much have those white collar jobs. The poor would work in factories and on farms and stuff like that. Blacks would live in slums and do the jobs no one else wants to do. There would be no opportunity for advancement in Southern society.

Also, on Russia, as others were talking about before, well Russia always showed support for the North, so I imagine they still would have sold Alaska to the the North and probably been a good trading partner of the North. As for the state of socialism, I would imagine that socialism would spread among people in both the North and South. Especially in the "caste" system in the South, socialism would really take off among the blacks and poor people. But I really can't think of anything the South could do about it short of open revolution. Socialist protests in the South would be violently suppressed and Socialist leaders would be arrested. The one thing this might do is turn the leaders into martyrs. I can think that poor whites and blacks would begin to work together and eventually begin to try and dismantle the caste system. I can see a very unstable South, instead of a good solid country.

That's a pretty accurate prediction, I think. How long did it take you to think up and type up all that?

Around 10 minutes. I'm very interested in this type of stuff. I've always been good at seeing the bigger picture, if not so good at remembering little details

Something to ponder. The southern states only united because of the war with the north. I think after the war they would break apart into independent realms.

Kind of like the United States of Central America after they gained indepedence from Mexico

Yup.

I don't know if it would have happened right away, but if there was some national issue that the individual states were fighting over, I can see that happening.

The USA would be a constant threat that held them together. If they ever broke apart the US would eat them one by one. They'd know that, and would stay true to the CSA.

I have to agree with Kara. Internal issues would drive them apart but foreign issues would smash them back together. The political situation may be unstable, but I don't think any states would really break off, except perhaps Texas.

If the South won, United States of America wouldn't be as it is today. Slavery would probably be continued and our current Allies would look down upon us and feel hatred towards us since we aren't doing the right thing. Maybe also if the South won the war, America would corrupted and feel more like fascism and dictatorship. Having that, it could lead to another civil war breaking up the country and having foreign countries take their due to claim new territories.

You don't say?

During the period, the US had no allies. The only ones who really seemed to like us somewhat were the Russians.
Eventually, the CSA would have had to get rid of slavery, be it 10 or a 100 years after the civil war. Obviously things would have been much worse for free black though.

Doubtful. Fascism or dictatorship is unlikely. The US could have seen a much more centralized government, or even a form of some sort of democratic socialism, but either of those would still likely be democratic.

I doubt that. At least the civil war part. Maybe Britain would try and get Canada back Maine (a claim of there's at the time I believe) but no other countries really had a claim against the US besides maybe Mexico, and they had already been beat by the Americans.

Your idea of it seems more reasonable and I totally agree with ya.