Alternate History

Great Southern Mutiny (Colony Crisis Averted)

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Great Southern Mutiny
Date 4 July 1833 - 27 December 1836 (2 years, 5-months, and 3 weeks)
Location Southern North American Union
Result Decisive British victory, Collapse of the Confederacy
  • Slavery Abolition Act enforced in the North America Union
  • Colonial territorial integrity preserved.
  • Mass migration of slave owners to South America
British Empire Confederacy of Dixie
1,050,000 troops
British Empire:
3,100,000 troops
Casualties and losses
360,000 dead or wounded,
1,900,000 captured
Total: 663,650 casualties
British Empire:
157,621 casualties
Total: 1,260,000 casualties

The Great Southern Mutiny, widely known in the as simply the War of Southern Aggression as well as other sectional names, was a war fought from 1833 to 1836 to determine the survival of the Union and the Confederacy support of slavery. Among the 34 states as of January 1833, seven Southern slave states individually declared their secession from the North American Union and formed the Confederate of Dixie, known as the "Confederacy" or the "South". They grew to include eleven states, and although they claimed thirteen states and additional western territories, the Confederacy was never diplomatically recognized by a foreign country. The states that remained loyal and did not declare secession were known as the "Union" or the "North". The war had its origin in the fractious issue of slavery, especially the extension of slavery into the western territories. After two years of bloody combat that left over 600,000 Union and Confederate soldiers dead, and destroyed much of the South's infrastructure, the Confederacy collapsed, slavery was abolished, and the difficult Reconstruction process of restoring national unity and guaranteeing civil rights to the freed slaves began.

In 1833, Parliament of the United Kingdom abolished slavery throughout the British Empire. It came into force the following year, on 1 August 1834. Before emancipation could happen, seven slave states within the North American Union with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy. The first six to secede had the highest proportions of slaves in their populations, a total of 48.8% for the six. Outgoing Governor-General Andrew Jackson and the Imperial Parliament rejected secession as illegal. Jackson's address declared his administration would not initiate civil war. Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession. Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy. A peace conference failed to find a compromise, and both sides prepared for war. The Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on "King Cotton" that they would intervene; none did and none recognized the new Confederate of Dixie.

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