美利坚邦联

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美国南北战争时期,脱离联邦的南方十一个州所组成的政府。在林肯当选总统(1860)後,大南方的七个州(阿拉巴马、佛罗里达、乔治亚、路易斯安那、密西西比、南卡罗来纳和德克萨斯)由於以奴隶制为基础的生活方式受到威胁,相继脱离联邦。接着,南方的另外四个州(阿肯色、北卡罗来纳、田纳西和维吉尼亚)也加入了美利坚邦联。1861年2月在阿拉巴马州蒙哥马利成立临时政府,翌年又在里奇蒙成立永久政府。美利坚邦联的总统为戴维斯,副总统为史蒂芬斯。诸州联盟的主要目的是保护州权和确立奴隶制度,主要的职责是招兵。美利坚邦联认为特产棉花可以使联邦政府和欧洲各国给予外交上的承认。但是,英、法等欧洲国家不予理睬。在南北战争头两年,美利坚邦联军队节节胜利。自从联邦军在盖茨堡和维克斯堡两地告捷(1863年7月)以後,美利坚邦联即失去胜利的希望。1865年4月9日李将军在维吉尼亚州投降。不久,美利坚邦联瓦解。

Confederate States of America

Government of the 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union in 1860-61 until its defeat in the American Civil War in 1865. In the months following Abraham Lincoln's election as president in 1860, seven states of the Deep South (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas) seceded. After the attack on Fort Sumter in April 1861, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia joined them. The government was directed by Jefferson Davis as president, with Alexander H. Stephens as vice president. Its principal goals were the preservation of states' rights and the institution of slavery. The government's main concern was raising and maintaining an army. It counted on the influence of King Cotton to exert financial and diplomatic pressure on the Union from sympathetic European governments. Battlefield victories for the South in 1861-62 gave the Confederacy the moral strength to continue fighting, but from 1863 dwindling finances and battlefield reverses increasingly led to demoralization. The surrender at Appomattox by Gen. Robert E. Lee precipitated its dissolution.