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The Union blockade in the American Civil War was a naval strategy by the United States to prevent the Confederacy from trading.. The blockade was proclaimed by President Abraham Lincoln in April 1861, and required the monitoring of 3,500 miles (5,600 km) of Atlantic and Gulf coastline, including 12 major ports, notably New Orleans and Mobile.
British financiers built and operated most of the blockade runners, spending hundreds of millions of pounds on them. They were staffed by sailors and officers on leave from the Royal Navy. When the U.S. Navy captured one of the fast blockade runners, it sold the ship and cargo as prize money for the American sailors, then released the crew.
The British Empire declared the American colonies to be in a state of rebellion after the First Continental Congress and refused to recognize their Declaration of Independence. The blockade ended with the Treaty of Paris recognizing U.S. independence and ending the war. 1788–1790 Sweden Russia: Second Russo-Swedish War: 1793–1797 France
The violation of British neutral rights triggered an uproar in Britain. Britain sent 11,000 troops to Canada, and the British fleet was put on a war footing with plans to blockade New York City if war broke out. In addition, the British put an embargo on the export of saltpetre which the US needed to make gunpowder.
The British blockade further damaged the American economy by forcing merchants to abandon the cheap and fast coastal trade to the slow and more expensive inland roads. [237] In 1814, only 1 out of 14 American merchantmen risked leaving port as it was likely that any ship leaving port would be seized. [238]
An Act for prohibiting Trade with the Barbadoes, Virginia, Bermuda and Antego or Act prohibiting Commerce and Trade with the Barbodoes, Antigo, Virginia, and Bermudas alias Summer's Islands was an Act of law passed by the Rump Parliament of England during the Interregnum against English colonies which sided with the Crown in the English Civil War (see English overseas possessions in the Wars ...
In 1895 a new crisis erupted in South America. A border dispute between British Guiana and Venezuela caused a crisis when Washington spoke out to take Venezuela's side. Propaganda sponsored by Venezuela convinced American public opinion that the British were infringing on Venezuelan territory.
It was estimated the Confederates received thousands of tons of gunpowder, half a million rifles, and several hundred cannons from British blockade runners. [41] As a result, the blockade runners operating from Britain prolonged the war by two years, killing 400,000 additional soldiers and civilians on both sides. [42] [43] [44]