On April 16, 1861, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln ordered a blockade of Confederate ports to weaken the Confederacy's economy.
It proved highly effective, decreasing cotton "exports to Europe from 3.8 million bales in 1860 to virtual nothing in 1862", and eventually stagnating the Confederacy's economy.
Davis' intuition proved true insofar as many manufacturers in Liverpool and Manchester demanded "government recognition of the Confederacy",[2] while in France "delegations of cotton merchants and manufacturers converged on Paris to press the government to help make U.S. cotton accessible again .
London worried about "the fate of its Canadian provinces, and its growing dependence on wheat and corn imports from the United States".
Continental Europe "had an interest in maintaining a strong United States to balance British economic and military power".
And East Indian and Egyptian cotton "was used only reluctantly and appeared likely to continue in a supporting role for the foreseeable future".