Intervention of foreign powers on the war's outcome

During the Civil War it was not foreign intervention, but the lack of foreign support for the South that had a significant influence on the outcome of the war.
From the beginning of the war until the end of 1863 the South counted on and had high hopes set on obtaining support from Great Britain against the Yankees. Many of the actions taken by General Robert E. Lee were designed in order to convince England to support the Confederacy. For example when Lee was planning on invading the North through Pennsylvania, he was hoping for a “decisive blow that would add strength to the noisy peace prodders in the North and would also encourage foreign intervention – still a Southern hope” (p.472). There were many reasons why Great Britain thought it better not to interfere with the Civil War, one of them being their dependence on grain produced in the North. However, had Britain chosen to join the Confederacy in their struggle for independence the outcome might have been similar to that of the American Revolution, in which France had helped the Rebels win. That is why it was so important for northern victory that Britain and France, the two major foreign powers, stayed out of the war.