Editing Jefferson Davis (section)

====Foreign policy====
{{see also|King Cotton|Cotton diplomacy}}
[[File:Cotton is king.jpg|thumb|An 1861 American [[political cartoon]] depicting [[John Bull]] kneeling on a Black slave before [[King Cotton]], accompanied by a poem mocking Britain's dependence on Southern cotton|alt=man in tophat with script coming out of pocket that says Manchester kneeling on an African American bowing before a bale of cotton depicted with a face and scepter and a crown on top of it.]]

The main objective of Davis's foreign policy was to achieve foreign recognition,{{sfn|Beckert|2004|p=1417}} allowing the Confederacy to secure international loans, receive foreign aid to open trade,{{sfn|Eaton|1977|p=169}} and provide the possibility of a military alliance. Davis was confident that most European nations' economic [[King Cotton|dependence on cotton]] from the South would quickly convince them to sign treaties with the Confederacy.{{sfnm|1a1=Hattaway|1a2=Beringer|1y=2002|1pp=50–51|2a1=Hubbard|2y=1998|2p=23}} Cotton had made up 61% of the value of all U.S. exports and the South filled most of the European cloth industry's need for cheap imported raw cotton.{{sfn|Beckert|2015|p=243}}

There was no consensus on how to use cotton to gain European support. Davis did not want an [[embargo]] on cotton,{{sfn|Owsley|1959|p=30}} he wanted to make cotton available to European nations, but require them to acquire it by violating the [[Union blockade|blockade]] declared by the Union. The majority of Congress wanted an embargo to coerce Europe to help the South.{{sfn|Hubbard|1998|pp=25–26}} Though there was no official policy, cotton was effectively embargoed.{{sfn|Owsley|1959|pp=32–39}} By 1862, the price of cotton in Europe had quadrupled and European imports of cotton from the United States were down 96%,{{sfn|Beckert|2015|p=247}} but instead of joining with the Confederacy, European cotton manufacturers found new sources, such as India, Egypt and Brazil.{{sfn|Beckert|2004|pp=1410–1414}} By the end of the war, not a single foreign nation had recognized the Confederate States of America.{{sfn|U.S. Department of State|2013}}