The Confederacy's Plan to Conquer Latin America

During the Civil War, Confederate leaders didn't just want to defeat the Union Army, they wanted to create a giant Latin American empire.



But Abraham Lincoln's election in November 1860 put an end to the argument. The anti-slavery president refused to compromise, and war broke out in April 1861.


Winning the war was clearly a higher priority for the Confederacy than conquering Latin America, but growth was certainly on the post-war agenda. Confederate president Jefferson Davis made sure the Confederate constitution included the the right to expand, and he filled his cabinet with men who thought similarly. He even hinted that the slave trade could be revived in "new acquisitions to be made south of the Rio Grande."

During the Civil War, Confederate agents attempted to destabilize Mexico so that its territories would be easy to snatch up after the war. One rebel emissary to Mexico City, John T. Pickett, secretly fomented rebellion in several Mexican provinces with an eye to "the permanent possession of that beautiful country." Pickett's mission ended in failure in 1861, but fate dealt the South a better hand in 1863. French Emperor Napoleon III seized Mexico, and the move provided the South with the perfect excuse to "liberate" the country after the Civil War.

Of course, Mexico was just part of the pie the South hoped to inherit. Confederate leaders also had their eyes squarely on Brazil -a country of nearly 4 million square miles and more than 8 million people. Prior to the outbreak of the war, U.S. Naval Academy founder Matthew Maury dispatched two Navy officers to the Amazon basin, ostensibly to map the river for shipping. Instead, they were secretly plotting domination and collecting data about separatist movements in the region. When the South lost the war, Maury refused to abandon his plans. He helped 20,000 ex-rebels flee to Brazil, where they established the Confederate colonies of New Texas and Americana. To this day, hundreds of descendants of the Confederados still gather outside Americana to celebrate their shared heritage of rocking chairs and sweet potato pie. In a strange way, a part of the Old South still survives -thousands of miles below the U.S. border.

(Image source: Os Confederados)


The above article is reprinted with permission from the July-August 2008 issue of mental_floss magazine.


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I know southern expansion seems radical now, but given the views of the day, it seems to be the logical follow up to western expansion. Why stop when you hit the Pacific? Just hang a left!
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Calling Lincoln anti-slavery is being a bit generous. Before the war he was against the *expansion* of slavery (with the end of perhaps abolishing it eventually) and once the war broke out he was primarily concerned with saving the Union, even if it meant preserving slavery. Initially he didn't even allow his generals to free slaves in captured territories. He didn't start to free the slaves in the South (with the Emancipation Proclamation) until the war was going pretty badly for him and he needed some momentum.

He did make it clear that ethically he did support the suffrage of slaves, though.
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My family is from Honduras and always spoke of William Walker as a sort of Pirate. My Great-Great-Great-Great Grandfather had him put to death, and was then assassinated 2 years later.
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