North, South, and Beyond: The Untold Connections of the American Civil War and Continental North American Conflicts

Join Professor Alan Taylor for a presentation on the entanglement of Canada in the American Civil War to the south which nearly led to a second northern front in that conflict. He will discuss the role of that near conflict in promoting the formation of a Canadian confederation in 1867 and examine the overlap of the Mexican and American civil wars during the 1860s. Initial American neutrality prolonged the Mexican conflict between the Republican liberals and the French-supported monarchists. After the American Civil War ended, the US government brought sufficient pressure to enable the Republican cause to prevail, producing a closer relationship between the US and Mexico for the rest of that century.