Plan Anaconda.
The Anaconda Plan was the name given to a military project of the Civil War of the United States, created by Union General Winfield Scott, and came into force in 1862. The Plan instituted a Confederation siege on the part of the Union, through a naval blockade, of control of the Mississippi River and the Tennessee River, encircling and totally dividing the Confederation. The naval blockade on this one - whose objective was to suppress the exportation of cotton, tobacco and food to European countries, and the import of armaments - implied a constant surveillance of 4,800 kilometers of southern littoral, a task considered impossible from the beginning. Scott popularized the term "Plan Anaconda", because like the South American anaconda, which kills its victims by twisting around them until they suffocate them and break their bones, the North proposed to destroy and "suffocate" the economy of the South "imprisoning" their territories through a blockade.
The blockade obtained good results in the first six months of operation, and was really severe two years after the start of the war. Although numerous Confederate ships managed to circumvent it several times, they were isolated cases, because the presence of North American ships prevented the Confederate States of America from maintaining an appreciable international trade with their European clients, greatly weakening their economy. In addition, the control of the Northeast over the Mississippi and Tennessee rivers provided easy and direct access to several important cities of the Confederation.
Apart from these three primary objectives, the Plan also aimed at capturing the capital of the Confederation, Richmond. Although General Scott considered this Plan as a way to end the war in a bloodless way, the will of resistance of the South was very strong and the two consecutive years of blockade showed that additional war vindications were indispensable for the North to win the war. Additionally, the importance given to the capture of Richmond was criticized, because this city had little strategic value, except for the good effects on the morale of the population of the Union, and the collapse of the Confederation's morale. p>
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