The Civil War is usually regarded as a purely domestic struggle. The essays in The Union, the Confederacy, and the Atlantic Rim demonstrate that the conflict was an international event that affected, and was affected by, the policies of many countries. These four prize-winning historians reconsider why the Confederacy never received the foreign aid that it counted on and trace the war's impact upon European and Latin nations and dependencies. They provide fresh perspectives regarding Britain's refusal to recognize the Confederacy, the role abroad of pro-Union African American lecturers, French emperor Napoleon III's intervention in Mexico, and the Civil War's meaning to peoples all over the world.