The Confederate States of America (also called the Confederacy or the CSA) was an unrecognized confederal state on Earth from 1861 to 1865. It was formed by a group of southern states, which asserted their independence from the United States of America following the election of United States President Abraham Lincoln in 1860.
The government of the United States regarded secession as illegal, and refused to recognize the Confederate States. The Russian Empire, allied with the United States, subsequently threatened war with any nation which recognized the Confederacy. Private companies in the United Kingdom, Australia, and France sold warships and supplies to the Confederate States, but no country officially recognized the Confederacy as a state.
After the Confederacy attacked Fort Sumter, a United States Army outpost, the United States engaged in an armed conflict with the secessionist states. The war, which lasted for four years, was never given an "official" name, but became known as the "American Civil War", "War Between the States", "War for Southern Independence", "War of Northern Aggression", the "Late Great Unpleasantness", and the "Second American Revolution". (TOS novel: The Romulan Way)
A recreation of Lincoln lamented it as a bloody conflict "at the hands of their brothers." (TOS episode: "The Savage Curtain").
The war ended in a United States victory. After the war the former Confederate states were eventually reassimilated into the Union. The war was eventually seen as one of the key events in bringing about an eventual end to slavery and oppression on Earth. (VOY episode: "The Q and the Grey")
External Links[]
- Confederate States of America article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
- Confederate States of America article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
- Naming the American Civil War article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
