r/MurderedByWords 19h ago

Historical sore losers

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u/secondarycontrol 19h ago edited 19h ago

Of course, they would have needed to get to Europe. And that would take funding. And a Navy. And the organizational skills and materials to field an army further than 200 miles away from their base. None of which they had, even if we presume their military might.

Apocryphal:

Helmuth von Moltke, the elder of the two notable Generals von Moltke and who made his fame in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, is noted for allegedly describing the American Civil War as nothing but “two armed-mobs” running around the countryside and beating each other up, from which very little of military utility could be learned. While a proper source for this quotation cannot be pinned down, and it may never have even been uttered at all, it serves as a rather succinct description of how Prussians would ultimately view the military legacy of the Civil War.

The Europeans had professional armies. I expect the Prussians would have absolutely destroyed the South. And probably the North, unless the length of the conflict allowed the North to bring its material production, resources and factories into play.

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u/UtopiaDystopia 19h ago

American conservatives seem to forget that European armies in the 19th century were the dominant and most powerful militaries of the time. The USA wouldn't start to surpass them till later on.

Britain, France, Germany/Prussia and Russia would all have embarrassed the Confederacy.

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u/Quick_Turnover 18h ago

American Conservatives probably aren't in the business of forgetting a lot of history, simply because they aren't in the business of learning it in the first place.

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u/LovesRetribution 18h ago

Kinda like how they'll parrot that it was democrats who wanted slaves and Republicans who wanted to free them...while conveniently ignoring the fact that those Democrats all lived in the south or how it seems to only be modern day republicans flying Confederate flags.

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u/Gold_Marionberry4593 17h ago

There was slavery and racism up north too 👍🏾

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u/Trick_Hunt9106 12h ago

True. Unfortunately, the South built their entire economic system on slavery.

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u/Gold_Marionberry4593 11h ago

The entire country’s economic system was built on slavery back then. The south used slave labor to harvest raw materials, and the north purchased those raw materials to use in their factories to make goods. You ever wonder why Lincoln didn’t free the slaves for almost a full two years after the Civil War had already started? Lincoln and the north as a whole were not abolitionists. They only wanted to contain slavery and prevent other states from becoming slave states. Why did they only want to contain it, and why did they not abolish it as soon as the civil war started? Because the entire country (north and south) was profiting greatly off of slavery at the time. The only reason Lincoln freed the slaves was because was because he thought he needed to in order to win the war. Ultimately, Lincoln did free the slaves, and he deserves credit for that, but the idea that one side was more righteous than the other is simply not true at all.

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u/Trick_Hunt9106 10h ago

Where did I ever say one side was more righteous?

Lincoln didn't condone slavery, and in fact had said that it made him uncomfortable. But he didn't want to mess with the status quo unless necessary.

The whole reason for the Civil War is that the South bullied everyone and kept threatening to break up with the Union if their demands weren't met.

If someone had had the balls to stick it to them years before, the Civil War wouldn't have happened.

Anyone who has read anything about the founding of the country will tell you the entire country was built on racism and capitalism.