What would the Confederacy gain by receiving British recognition?
1 Answer
Legitimacy and supplies.
Explanation:
When a civil war is started, which the American Revolution was, one of the goals of the separatists is to gain recognition from a foreign power and gain recognition as a legal government. In 1777 the Americans did this by getting the French government to recognize them.
In the case of the Confederacy, the south was almost a completely agrarian economy and therefor lacking for the goods of an industrial society. The south needed mass produced weapons of all sorts. They also needed financial backing to further their cause. In Britain they saw the possibility to gain these things. The British government did send military observers but in the end declined to recognize the Confederacy. Their reasoning being they could not afford to alienate the industrial north, a huge trading partner for them.
