• psud@aussie.zone
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      12 days ago

      In Australia we say it was union forces against the confederacy. No idea what the Americans say

      Ed to add I am presuming you aren’t American since you’re wearing a nationally specific instance name

      • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
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        6 days ago

        The core legal conceit in actual American law is that the “Confederates” were rebels. There never was an independent nation called the Confederacy of Slaving Trash (or whatever), and because the United States federal government won they get to say that.

        Further, the fact that it was referred to by everyone as a civil war acknowledges that as fact in practice.

        This is, of course, all pendantry over the precise relationship of social constructs and will never matter.

        And literally everyone calls the northern, federal faction the Union, including themselves at the time, so the pedantry isn’t accurate or necessary, as is usually the case.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      12 days ago

      The United States, even in times of peace before and since the Civil War, is often referred to as “the Union”. So it’s the same thing.

  • yesman@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    A coworker once told me that the Confederacy was doomed because the Union had superior industrial might. I told him that sounds like wisdom in English, but in Vietnamese it’s a joke.

    • anton@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      10 days ago

      That’s the difference between a limited and total war.
      During world war 2, the US produced enough combat vehicles to fit all Americans serving concurrently in Vietnam, while building mote than one ship a day, engineering nuclear bombs and supplying their allies.

      • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
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        6 days ago

        The civil war is classified as a total war but nice try.

        In reality the Confederacy had plenty of industrial power… Purchasable from Europe, with cotton. Just as the Vietnamese were able to borrow industrial capability from the USSR and China.

        On the topic of total wars and what exactly that means, btw, Vietnam was a total war for the Vietnamese, and the mass conscription in America and the spending on military hardware certainly goes beyond the rhetorical implications of a “limited” war for America.

        Back on topic, the Confederacy’s problem was that the Union had the Navy, and abolitionists had enough influence in Britain that the British government couldn’t sell off their claimed principles and break the blockade.