TY - JOUR
AU - Jones, Howard
AB - Book Reviews 597 government was the “natural ally and friend” of the Confederacy (p. 78). Yet, alas, Spain and the Confederacy never became allies. To justify his study, Bowen insists that Spanish intervention “could have changed the course of the war,” but he then concedes that if Spain had decided to extend military or diplo- matic assistance, “it had little means to do so” (pp. 7, 82). With a weak army, navy, and economy, how could Spain’s intervention have altered the outcome of the Civil War? The pres- ence of the Spanish fleet in Havana Harbor mighthaveraised questions aboutthe legitimacy of the Union blockade, but this type of court- room challenge was no more threatening to the Union’s warships than was Spain’s wooden fleet. It is difficult to believe that Spanish intervention could have made a difference—even if Britain and France had taken the lead. If Spain’s intervention ever had a chance, that chance disappeared when the British and Spain and the American Civil War. By Wayne French ultimately decided that the South had H. Bowen. (Columbia: University of Missouri nothing to offer that was worth a war with the Press, 2011. 188 pp. $40.00.) Union. To drive home 
TI - Spain and the American Civil War
JF - The Journal of American History
DO - 10.1093/jahist/jas222
DA - 2012-09-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/spain-and-the-american-civil-war-BFbsgl0HAL
SP - 597
EP - 597
VL - 99
IS - 2
DP - DeepDyve
ER -