What Would America Be Today Had The South Won The Civil War?

Jan 13

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6a00d8341cc27e53ef01a3fd0e6a37970b-550wiYears ago, I found a bargain book titled “The Complete Idiot’s Guide To American Heroes.” (Please, don’t laugh. Okay. Go ahead and laugh.) Under “Strange Encounters of the Heroic Kind” is the note that George Washington and Betsy Ross sat in adjacent pews at church. The other night as I was going through the book and read that part, I wondered about the “customs” claimed by those who still hold onto the Confederate battle flag. That led to the question, what would America be today had the South won the Civil War?

Native American Code Talkers in World War II

Native American Code Talkers in World War II

Would we have the inventions and research of people of color, including Native Americans that have benefited not only America, but mankind as a whole? What about music, literature, movies? What about the result of wars, especially World War II with the participation of the Tuskegee Airmen and Navajo “code talkers”?

This is open for discussion. I would very much like to hear your opinions, and any contributions that have helped make America great, and that would have been impossible, or hindered had the Confederacy won the Civil War.

Posted on 01/13/2016, in Black History Month, civil rights, Confederate Flag, Potpourri, research and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. 18 Comments.

  1. renxkyoko | 01/13/2016 at 10:22 am

    My family wouldn’t be here, I guess. and Philippine history would be completely different. ( The US colonized the Philippines in 1898 til July 4, 10946. ) Maybe even my own family wouldn’t exist. Wow ! That’s an interesting thought.

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  2. racerrodig | 01/13/2016 at 12:12 pm

    Pretty good topic. My mom was Cajun French and Choctaw Indian from the very southern / western corner of LA. My dad is German Irish originally from Phila. PA. They met in the Navy in 1951 or 52.

    I doubt if the south had won, they ever would have met. I doubt mom would have been allowed to join the military and I bet even is she was, there would have been rules to keep them from fraternizing.

    In my opinion, most of the contributions in science, industry, medicine and all that would not have been by those. Now……..I bet those white folks would encourage the black people to keep playing music………

    From time to time i get into those “What if…” conversations and this is one of them. If the South had won, I doubt the US would be a world power and they would have stopped immigration save for the slave trade and anyone they could abuse.

    The US would have fallen into an isolationist country.

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    • Xena | 01/13/2016 at 1:49 pm

      Hey Racer. Excellent comment. You really put yourself in the shoes of someone who would have been effected had the south won the civil war. I wonder if European immigration would have stopped after 1865?

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      • Two sides to a story | 01/13/2016 at 4:50 pm

        Euro immigration stop? Doubt it.

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      • racerrodig | 01/13/2016 at 6:42 pm

        I think Euro immigration would have slowed. Remember that in the 1800’s and well into the 1900’s every nationality was tortured in some fashion, Germans…….in fact my great grandfather had our last name legally changed. It had an “e” in it with the umlauts. The anti German sentiment at the time forced this. Irish, Italians, Asians…..you name an ethnic group and someone was puttin’ ’em down.

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  3. Two sides to a story | 01/13/2016 at 4:49 pm

    Hmm. Thanks for the mind rush. I hadn’t thought about this before. Had the South won, they would have seceded and not necessarily have dominated the US, though that’s a possibility as well. So – some things might very well have been different for the US and some things the same . . . it’s certainly a mindbending exercise either way.

    We might still have a Confederate States of America . . . I lived in a SW state for most of my life, where the southernmost (and nearly forgotten) battle of the Civil War was fought before it was a state. Likely portions of that state would have joined the confederacy. And probably I wouldn’t have lived in the S part of the state, which is now one of the most liberal areas, ironically.

    I think many of our indigenous tribes may have taken up the Union cause kicked some ass, though . . . interesting to speculate. It wasn’t until after the Civil War that some tribes in the West were finally conquered or destroyed, another shameful part of our shared history.

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    • Xena | 01/14/2016 at 12:24 pm

      Two sides,
      Thanks for the comment. Deep contemplation there. If I remember correctly, it was after the Civil War, and with a remaining army that it was sent out to the West to “settle” territory by slaughtering Native Americans. So, if the South had won the Civil War, maybe that would not have happened.

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  4. eurekajim | 01/13/2016 at 6:25 pm

    We’d have a Third World Country for a Neighbor collecting Foreign Aid from us? The good NooZ is we’d have an excuse to build that bigazzed Wall they keep asking for. ;op

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  5. crustyolemothman | 01/13/2016 at 9:44 pm

    Well one thing that is pretty sure, we would not be here having this discussion. If the nation had remained split it is not likely that we would have this means of discussion (internet) and most of us would not be talking to one another because of regional and other reasons…..

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  6. cfbostonbrian | 01/14/2016 at 12:25 pm

    Well, let’s see. If the South won, I think three factors may have happened. I am sure there are more, but this is what I could see immediately.

    1. We would either fly the Rebel Battle flag, or we would be a country divided like Korea is today. There is a possibility that this country would had been invaded by Russia via Cuba from Florida, Mexico from the south, or even England from the east. We may speak English, if the English took over this country, otherwise I believe we would be speaking a different language; and if I had to really guess it would be Russian.

    2. The contributions that Africans and other slaves had made to this land would not had existed. Therefore, we may not have stop lights, turn signals, and many other inventions that we take advantage of today.

    3. There would not be a World War II for America. If we were under Russian rule, we would be on the side of Communism and would wipe Hitler off the face of the earth. This would allow Communism to be the largest Government in the world. Then, there would not be any differences and most people would not have a voice; even though some of us still don’t have voices.

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    • Xena | 01/14/2016 at 4:19 pm

      cfbostonbrian,
      You brought up something that I had not contemplated; i.e., the role of Russia and its relationship with Cuba. Also, the contributions of Blacks in America are impossible to list or include in one book, including medical that we only hear about during Black history month. Thanks so much for your comment.

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  7. crustyolemothman | 01/15/2016 at 6:31 am

    While most of us can not imagine the world with out the “United States of America”, had the south prevailed in the division of this nation, the world as we know it would never have existed. To get just a glimpse of the “might have happened” scenario, I will post an article that deals with a continuing problem (150+ years after the war) we face even today, just imagine the magnitude of the problem if the south had won and slavery had continued to be sanctioned by the government of this (or these?) nation.

    http://articles.latimes.com/2013/oct/17/world/la-fg-wn-slavery-africa-20131017

    “The United States is ranked 134th in terms of prevalence of slavery, with nearly 60,000 estimated to be in modern slavery.”

    Just think for a moment, where would this part of the world been in that chart had the south prevailed in their war efforts?
    I don’t really think anyone of us is actually capable of grasping the magnitude of the effect this nation has had on the history of the world….

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    • Xena | 01/15/2016 at 3:24 pm

      Mothman,
      That’s an interesting article. Thanks for the link.

      Re:

      “I don’t really think anyone of us is actually capable of grasping the magnitude of the effect this nation has had on the history of the world….”

      I agree.

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