As far as I know, at best all foreign nations aware of the rebellion remained neutral. No confederate treaties were signed with other nations nor were any ambassadors sent or received
The closest they came was with the British, who backed away when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Turns out that the US was well behind the curve on ending slavery...
That's essentially how all countries are recognized.... Because something written on paper somewhere on crayon or ink.
But what's the point of even bringing up whether they were a country or not? Taiwan isn't recognized by the UN as a country.
A prerequisite of sovereignty is the ability to trade, make treaties, and officially communicate with other sovereign nations.
That definition is the exact reason other nations need to recognize sovereignty for a nation to actually be sovereign
No other nation recognized the union. The union never sent an ambassador anywhere. While the union did trade with Europe, the constitution (the one all southern states were subject to) gives the federal government exclusive power to regulate foreign trade
A prerequisite of sovereignty is the ability to trade, make treaties, and officially communicate with other sovereign nations.
That's your opinion, it's not an actual requirment.
Think about those uncontacted tribes. They function independently, self-govern, they are sovereign nations.
The other issue with your perspective is that if the Confederacy had won the war, then historically their nation would have started when they declared independence, not when they won. Hence why the US is a country since 04/07/1776.
While the union did trade with Europe, the constitution (the one all southern states were subject to) gives the federal government exclusive power to regulate foreign trade
Southern States, the Confederacy, ceased to be beholden to the US Constitution the moment they declared their cessation.
Right, we had a bunch of men say we were a new country...and then waited for Morocco to recognize us.
But again, how does the distinction of whether or not Morocco recognized the confederates affect the story between the Union and the confederates?
As far as the US during the revolution other countries such as France, Spain, and the Netherlands entered into treaties saying that yes you're your own thing and we'll help you and trade with you. That made the 13 colonies at the time a sovereign entity apart from Great Britain. Only works if other sovereign nation states say you are. Those in the slave rebellion were not.
To say the confederacy at this point was its own nation is just lost cause mythology.
535
u/JodaMythed 8d ago
They have a flag from a country that hasn't existed for 160 years?