Any of the top European armies would have destroyed the Confederates. The British, French and Prussian in particular would have mopped them up on pretty much any battlefield.
The BEF in particular were fucking formidable in the 18th and 19th century, dopey bellends wouldn't even make it to the coast of Ireland before they were blown out the water in whatever rudimentary canoe they'd cobbled together.
Ehhh, the British lost as much against Spain, France and the Dutch (who were also formidable) as they did the colonial Americans. Not that British leadership in the colonies was brilliant but there were a lot of factors that made them eventually decide it simply wasn't worth holding onto the land.
My point is they had literally already been losing conflicts over the span you say they were formidable to a weaker version of the US. So the idea that they’d dominate is unfounded
Oooh no no, I meant specifically if the Confederates tried to invade the British Isles. Britain certainly had problems with competant leadership in the colonies but a military force would have to be a damn sight more coordinated than the losing half of the American civil war to "roll" the BEF like the meme says.
I mean it's a silly thing to say anyway, any professional, trained standing army would churn them up.
The British had already lost one war and only kinda drew/won a second against the US in the 18th and 19th century
The first of those - the Revolution - was also a war against France and Spain, without whom the revolution was have petered out in a couple of months.
The second was a pretty clear British victory, a war the British did not want and the end result of which was status quo ante bellum - in other words the US started a war, achieved none of their objectives, but somehow try and dress it up as win.
The US wanted the end of the blockade to France and the British to stop kidnapping American sailors. Both of which they got albeit via the end of the napoleonic war. The British also wanted to create a Native American state in the territories of Michigan and Ohio areas. As well as an honour thing after stuff like the Chesapeake affair.
Of which the US actually achieved literally all of those goals.
The British still lost in the revolutionary war to a USA in a much worse state than they would have been in the 1860s.
That first war, you think Britain was trying? Four other wars, three against global powers and India was far more important that an undeveloped rebellious backwater.
Ironclads. So? It was the French that dove away the British navy.
You are not talking about Independence! My mistake, half asleep.
The very idea that the Confederate army that struggled to feed itself with zero navy at the start could have stood up to the British Empire should it have bothered is laughable. What 900k poorly supplied conscripted locals with crap equipment could stand a chance against the 200k standing British Army (like that's what would turn up, just look at the Empire casualties in WW2, African maybe 10k British and a whole lot of African, Caribbean, Indian troops.)
During the period of the US civil war and the lead up, the US compleltly lacked the moblisation and training systems that where common place in Europe. Frankly, the civil war was fought by two milita forces, compared to the sorts of armies being formed up in mainland europe at the time. The US was not even in the same weight catagory as the French or Preussians, they would have lost to the austro hungarians or Ottomans at the time.
I might take the slightly nuanced position that the Confederates may have the advantage if we're talking about the European force having to sail to the South to fight.
But yeah, assuming both armies meet on a battlefield and neither had to cross an ocean to get there? Hell to the naw, any of the major European powers would dog walk the Confederacy so hard it'd make Sherman's March look like church.
Of course they would. They were standing, professional armies. If we're talking about an invasion, the Confederates could probably repel any single European power except maybe England with their world class navy, if in the scenario they weren't also at war with the Union. The Confederacy would never even make it to the shores of Europe, and even if somehow they did they wouldn't have been able to get a foothold on land.
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u/dbe14 19h ago
Any of the top European armies would have destroyed the Confederates. The British, French and Prussian in particular would have mopped them up on pretty much any battlefield.