משתמש:צנטוריון/הכותנה היא המלך

"הכותנה היא המלך" הייתה הסיסמא מאחורי דיפלומטיית הכותנה של קונפדרציית המדינות של אמריקה, מדיניות לפיה מנעו מדינות הדבר יצוא של כותנה, מוצר היצוא העיקרי של מדינות אלה, לארצות אירופה, תחת ההנחה כי הדבר יגרום ללחץ דיפלומטי על מדינות אלה, ולהתערבותן הישירה במלחמת האזרחים לצד מדינות הדרום. הנחה זו התבררה כשגוייה, והמהלך היה לאחד הכישלונות אסטרטגי המרכזיים, אשר הובילו לתבוסת הדרום במלחמה.

היה הביטוי בו השתמשו בעיקר פליטיקאים וסופרים ממדינות הקונפדרציה, בכדי לתאר את חשיבות יבול הכותנה במהלך מלחמת האזרחים האמריקנית  אולם הניסיון להשתמש באמצעי סחר זה כאמצעי לחץ דיפלומטי במטרה לגרור את מדינות אירופה להתערב במלחמה לצד מדינות הקונפדרציה, התברר ככישלון אסטרטגי.

הכותנה היא המלך

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היסטוריה

במהלך סוף המאה ה-18 והמאה ה-19, הופקו למעלה מ-75% מיבול הכותנה העולמי במטעי הכותנה במדינות הדרום של ארצות הברית. החיסרון של גידול כותנה היה זמן העיבוד הרב שנדרש לאחר קצירת היבול. עם המצאת המנפטה ב-1793 על ידי אלי ויטני, הפך גידול הכותנה לכדאי, והפך לגידול העיקרי של מדינות הדרום

The rapid growth of cotton production was an international phenomenon, prompted by events occurring far from the American South. The insatiable demand for cotton was a result of the technological and social changes that are today known as the Industrial Revolution. Beginning early in the 18th century (c. 1712), a series of inventions resulted in the mechanized spinning and weaving of cloth in the world’s first factories in the north of England. The ability of these factories to produce unprecedented amounts of cotton cloth revolutionized the world economy.

The invention of the cotton gin came just at the right time. British textile manufacturers were eager to buy all the cotton that the South could produce. The figures for cotton production support this conclusion: from 720,000 bales in 1830, to 2.85 million bales in 1850, to nearly 5 million in 1860. Cotton production renewed the need for slavery after the tobacco market declined in the late 18th century. The more cotton grew, the more slaves were needed, to keep up with the demand of cotton. תבנית:Cquote

By the time of the Civil War, cotton accounted for almost 60% of American exports, representing a total value of nearly $300 million a year. The rise in population from the cotton industry even brought statehood to southern territories. The admission of Louisiana (1812), Mississippi (1817), Alabama (1819), Arkansas (1836), Florida and Texas (1845),into the Union brought increase of power to the South in the United States Congress. Cotton’s central place in the national economy and its international importance led Senator James Henry Hammond of South Carolina to make a famous boast in 1858:

Southerners thought their survival depended on the sympathy of Europe to offset the power of the Union. They believed that cotton was so essential to Europe that they would intervene in any civil war.

When war broke out the Confederate Congress decided to refuse to allow the export of cotton to Europe. The idea was that this cotton diplomacy would force Europe to intervene. European states did not, however, intervene and, following Abraham Lincoln's decision to impose a Union blockade, the South was unable to move its millions of bales of cotton. The production of cotton increased in other parts of the world, such as India and Egypt, to meet the demand. British-owned newspaper The Standard of Buenos Aires in cooperation with the Manchester Cotton Supply Association succeeded in encouraging Argentinian farmers to drastically increase production of cotton in that country and export it to the United Kingdom.

See also

• Eli Whitney
• Boll Weevil

External links

• Cotton King Cartoon
• King Cotton

• קטגוריה:Economic history of the Confederate States of America
• קטגוריה:History of the Southern United States
• קטגוריה:Economic history of the American Civil War

דיפלומטיית הכותנה

During the 1850s and the American Civil War, Cotton Diplomacy was the idea that Britain and France required cotton from the South; South Carolina exclaimed, "Cotton is King!" (See King Cotton). However, the Confederate States of America significantly overestimated the leverage that the cotton trade would give them.

In 1861 Southern economists and oligarchs realized that with a blockade of southern ports they would be unable to compete with the north economically. Once they saw that a long war was unavoidable, and that the limited population of the South could not support a fully mobilized army, they made the decision in 1861 to embargo cotton exports. Cotton was then warehoused and used to prop up confederate war bonds, which were then sold in Europe.

This embargo was effective at first, creating an instant source of income from the valuable cotton backed bonds, shutting down hundreds of textile factories, and putting thousands of people in Europe out of work, but the embargo became a disaster for the confederacy when the British did not cave in to their demands, choosing instead to import cotton from Egypt and India in 1862.

The opening of these new markets caused the price of cotton to stabilize quickly, and by 1863 the Southern economy, which was completely tied to the price of cotton, had crashed, crippling the South's ability to secure any kind of alliance, or purchase badly needed war supplies.

This idea, known as a self-embargo,was also used by President Jefferson in his Embargo Act of 1807, and was similarly ignored during the Napoleonic wars in Europe.

References

• Charles M. Hubbard, The Burden of Confederate Diplomacy (1998)
• Howard Jones, Union in Peril: The Crisis over British Intervention in the Civil War (1992)
• Frank Lawrence Owsley, King Cotton Diplomacy: Foreign relations of the Confederate States of America (1931)
• http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ascentofmoney/featured/the-ascent-of-money-episode-2-bonds-of-war/90/
• http://mshistory.k12.ms.us/articles/291/cotton-and-the-civil-war

See also

• Economy of the Confederate States of America

• קטגוריה:Economic history of the Confederate States of America
• קטגוריה:Economic history of the American Civil War
• קטגוריה:United Kingdom – United States relations

תבנית:AmericanCivilWar-stub