Luke Oakridge
Jul 24, 2017 · 1 min read

You are assuming that the South wouldn’t develop their own industry. If the South succeeded in breaking away from the North, then it would need to change its economic model since it couldn’t rely on sending material to the North anymore. So probably the easiest solution would be for the South to build their own factories. In which case the South could end up being a productive country. Having slavery would probably cause a great wealth difference between those who could afford slaves and those who couldn’t since slavery would take away a lot of the jobs that poorer people would normally do, but it could still be a functioning economy.

Also, countries that focus on natural resources tend to be poorer countries, but that isn’t the same thing as collapse. If the South could form alliances with European countries (face it, England in the late 19th century would love it if its former colony got split in half as punishment for rebelling) then the South could very easily hold off the North. The North can take the South, but it can’t take the South and England and France.