Washington DC:
At nightfall on Christmas day, 1991, the enduring hammer-and-sickle flag of the erstwhile Soviet Union lowered for the final time over the Kremlin in Moscow. USSR had dissolved into Russia and fourteen impartial international locations – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as President of the Soviet Union, leaving Boris Yeltsin as President of Russia. Most folks born within the Eighties and earlier keep in mind that momentous day – when a communist superpower disintegrated.
But precisely 130 years earlier than that, in 1861, one other superpower – the ‘world’s oldest democracy’ – the United States of America – then solely a union of 34 states, not 50 as it’s at this time – had fallen aside, breaking into two international locations – the United States of America and the Confederate States of America, leaving the US lower than 1 / 4 of the dimensions we all know it to be at this time. This is the way it remained for almost 5 years, throughout which there was an all-out struggle between the 2 international locations. That struggle was referred to as the American Civil War.
Though the CSA had declared itself an impartial nation with its personal president, flag, capital metropolis, and set in place its personal authorities and administration, the US by no means accepted it as a separate nation. And although it did not attain world recognition in that period, a number of international locations had began buying and selling with it. British and French corporations even offered ships and uncooked supplies to the Confederacy, which declared itself an impartial Republic.
Just over a decade earlier, in 1846, the American Union had gone to struggle with Mexico, referred to as the Mexican-American struggle. Till then, the states of California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, Okhlahoma, and Kansas was once a part of Mexico – some partially, some in full. At the top of the over two-year struggle, Mexico suffered a catastrophic defeat, resulting in it ceding all these states to the US in a declaration of defeat which is called The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed in 1848. Mexico needed to cede 55 per cent of its general territory in alternate for $15 million from the United States.
But in 1861, the American Union fell aside. 11 southern states got here collectively to interrupt away and kind the Confederate States of America. The new nation had its personal President – Jefferson Davis, who served from 1861 to 1865. He was from Mississippi. The 11 states that declared secession from the American Union have been South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. It arrange its personal authorities, slicing off fully from the US.
Jefferson Davis – First and solely President of the Confederate States of America. (Photo Credit: senate.gov)
Though the rising bitterness between the states of the north and people of the south was brewing for a number of years, the central concern that led to the autumn of the United States was its coverage on slavery. There have been additionally divergent views on how the Constitution of the United States ought to be interpreted. Economic, political, and social components additionally contributed to the divide.
Initially, six of the eleven states broke aside. Leaders and stakeholders from South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana met in Montgomery, Alabama in February, 1861 to declare independence from the American Union, formally calling themselves the Confederate States of America or CSA – a brand new nation, with Richmond, Virginia declared as its capital metropolis. Texas broke away and joined them a month later. Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia joined CSA when the civil struggle broke out.
While the United States fought the struggle below the Stars and Stripes flag, also called the Star-Spangled Banner, which on the time had solely 34 stars representing the 34 states, the Confederate States of America fought the struggle below its personal flag, referred to as the Stars and Bars or the Southern Cross.
Flags of the USA (top-left) and CSA (bottom-left), and the Confederate Flag (proper). (Photo Credit: iStock)
The secession was a response to the election win of Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate who vehemently opposed slavery and had pledged to abolish it, whereas these 11 Confederate States needed to proceed the follow of slavery.
Abraham Lincoln – sixteenth President of the United States of America (Photo Credit: whitehouse.gov)
At the top of the civil struggle, the United States defeated the Confederate States and took management of the 11 states which have been misplaced, and with the Mexican states received in struggle a decade in the past, the US grew to become a 48-state nation, with Alaska, purchased from Russia, and Hawaii turning into the final two states becoming a member of the United States a lot later. And although the Confederate States of America now solely discovering point out in historical past books and archived paperwork, its flag – the Confederate flag – which represents slavery and white supremacy – has resurfaced every so often.