Explain how Diplomacy and Naval Forces Became the Lesser Known Keys to Victory for Both the Confederacy and the Union, why Was the North Able to Succeed in Both?

The Confederacy needed to import materials for the war from Britain, so to shut off the Confederacy from receiving these imports, Lincoln ordered the Navy to blockade all southern ports, and stop both international trade and the short-distance coastal traffic. This blockade started out very weak and unobtainable and the South snuck 9 out of 10 ships through it.
The power of cotton allowed the Confederacy to employ cotton diplomacy as its foundation for foreign relations during the Civil War; Southerners used cotton to pressure countries such as England and France into the war on behalf of the Confederacy. Southern leaders were convinced that the key to their success lay in gaining international recognition and help from European powers in breaking the blockade that the Union had thrown up around coastal areas and ports and that was increasingly effective as the war went on. …