It was Great Britain. The South’s economy primarily relied on agriculture particularly cotton. It was the cash crop of the South especially with the invention of the cotton gin making it faster to remove seeds from cotton. As part of their efforts to gain economic and diplomatic support, the Confederates opened diplomatic channels with European countries. It had diplomatic talks with Great Britain. It had a large textile industry and the South had an abundance of cotton that they can sell to the British to increase their finances. However, the Union used all of it industrial and military resources against the Confederacy and in the end they surrendered to the Union.