Could the Civil War have been about piracy?

Could the Revolutionary and Civil Wars been at least partially about piracy?

Can it be that there were Barbary Pirates in the New World perhaps even before Columbus? Think of all the Southerners who look more than a little like Quaddaffi. Then, when Europe discovered the place, the navies of Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, France, and Holland cut them off. Can it be they lived as natives and with the natives for a while?

Can it be GB sentenced other people to transportation to the New World for being indirectly involved in piracy, since piracy itself was a hanging offense? Along with ordinary colonists, of course.

Why did GB give the Colonies the land in the Treaty of Paris in 1783? Can it be at least in part because they had given the colonists some people to take care of?

Can it be the colonists were upset about taxation without representation because the ones who were profitably employed did not want to spend an unfair amount on the defense of the rest?

Can it be after independence, one of the reasons England went to war with the US in 1812 was they expected the South to be ready to support them again once they had shouldered the burden of their own defense for a few decades? Perhaps GB expected them to try a little harder this time after facing the natives without the help of the British military?

Can it be that one of the issues with Fort Sumter was it blocked pirate ships from sailing? What if said pirate ships victimized GB's shipping, or perhaps the shipping of France or Spain? Assume for a minute the British Crown still tried to exert spiritual protection over the descendants of its orphaned children exiled to the US. What if France or Spain threatened war over the piracy? What if, as a result, Britain agreed to turn a blind eye if the US started cracking down on the South?

Last of all, can it be the New World was known to the Old since ancient times, but God protected them? Until they started trafficking in captives, at which point Europe had the right to step in? Could it be the money the pirates made trafficking Europeans to the New World was funding further kidnapping efforts?

A bit complex to say as an outsider, but where did the term "carpetbagger" originate?

Ain't that piracy by another name?

Maybe the South African term "Gucci communists" also relates.

Could the Civil War have been about piracy?

If one can consider the taking of certain Southern farmlands by federal forces piracy .
And it absolutely can be .

In the beginning , it was the War Between the States.
That was changed later as the north needed cannon fodder as they were losing.
Such was Lincoln's Legacy .

Could have been for sure .

Because one thing is for sure the Civil War had almost nothing to do with Slavery .

So yes I'm leaning towards Piracy.

a reply to: Solvedit

Intriguing theory.

All I know is that the way that the rulers have manipulated and rewritten the historical events that have taken place over the last couple of decades, they could have done wonders with a couple of centuries.

Most people don’t even know the first thing about the Barbary Pirates. The Templars are another example.

Both impacted history, possibly in North America, in a massive way but they are rarely mentioned.

a reply to: Solvedit

maybe look into the uks pirate history as its a pirate nation.. my own has had a huge history going back to the saxon invasions,the smuggling gangs at the time of the American revolution could put together gangs upto 500 horses, though the raids and battles where more often much smaller..

one of the fathers of the revolutionary wars Tom Paine was employed as a tax official to crack down on such gangs and it was a more senior tax officer (a tutor to the king) who introduced Paine to Ben Franklin, and tom paine was paid by thee tax office to write his political pamphlets.. records of the payments are held in "the keep" and only came to light within the last few decades..

this remains true to this day with the main people smuggling hot spots in the same coastal spots, in a continent to britain pipeline that goes back to the romans..

originally posted by: nickyw
a reply to: Solvedit

maybe look into the uks pirate history as its a pirate nation..

Of course there are a lot of countries with piracy in their backgrounds.

Can it be the English had to put them somewhere because they needed food and upkeep when there was peace?

England didn't need them victimizing other countries with whom they may have had a tenuous truce.

There may have been a general crackdown on piracy in the 1850s which went along with the Declaration of Paris of 1856 which banned privateering.

What to many countries was a call to step up law enforcement among their sailors may have been a deal breaker to the Southern states. The ordinary farmers were vying with the big slave-holding planters for land.

Recall the planters were supporting wars in places like Kansas territory and the nation of Texas in order to get more land in which slavery was legal. It stands to reason that there may have also been internal pressure to get small farmers off their land such as by getting them in debt and foreclosing.

In Ken Burns' The Civil War, historian Ed Bearss claimed the Southern militia system was not built up into a truly effective fighting force until after John Brown's raid. This suggests the plantation owners would not have spared the other farmers in order to keep the protection of their militia.

Anyway, the overall point is, instead of almost helping the South, can it be England and the other European powers were putting pressure on the Federal government to do something?