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[[File:Scott-anaconda.jpg|thumbnail|left|300px|Cartoon (1861) depicting General Winfield Scott's effort to blockade the South.]]
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During the Civil War, Union forces established a blockade of Confederate ports designed to prevent the export of cotton and the smuggling of war materiel into the Confederacy. The blockade, although somewhat porous, was an important economic policy that successfully prevented Confederate access to weapons that the industrialized North could produce for itself.
====Britain objected to US blockade, but did little else====
[[File:Blockade_connecticut_plan_civil_war_cartoon.jpg|thumbnail|left|300px|The efforts to blockade the South were not particularly effective. This cartoon mocks the Northern effort.]]
British officials were also concerned about the treatment of crews of seized ships, as well as the seizure of British mail. British Minister to the United States, Baron Richard Lyons, repeatedly voiced his government’s objections to U.S. Secretary of State William Henry Seward, prompting Seward to invite Lyons to a meeting with President Lincoln. During this meeting Lyons persuaded Lincoln to adopt British neutrality policies by promising that the British Government would continue to view the blockade as a legitimate tool of war.
