Why didn't a foreign nation invade during the Civil war?

Would that even be logistically possible?

Elaborate

Why didn't Mexico attack ? Spain ? I know Japan was occupied . Brazil ?I watch too much game of thrones

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Why didn't Mexico attack ?

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They couldn't even defeat a small army of rebels in Texas.

Mexico was extremely unstable and facing a debt crisis with European lenders demanding payment and attempting to take territories as collateral.

By the end of the war, the Grand Army of the Republic (Union) was the largest, best equipped, best trained, and most experienced fighting force on the planet.

When Napoleon III tried to take over Mexico, his troops got smacked by the Americans who came down to help, putting an end to their re-colonization designs for North America. If the French had won convincingly at Puebla, or the South victorious and Antietam and/or Gettysburg, European involvement in North America during and after the war would have been very different.

Russia had attempted to colonize Alaska, but simply didn’t have the money or excess population to do so in numbers. Gold and oil wouldn’t be discovered there until near the turn of the century.

The Russians were more worried about the Ottomans and incorporating the Tartars, Central Asian Steppe peoples, and Siberian natives into their massive, sparsely populated Empire.

They feared, rightly, that if they didn’t sell it, they’d lose Alaska to the Brits, Americans, or Japanese since Russia had little to no ability to project strength there at the time.

The Confederacy was banking on European intervention which never happened. Britain and the US nearly went to war when The US Navy boarded a British passenger ship and arrested two Confederate diplomats (one of them being John Slidell, for whom the town of Slidell is named after) but it was resolved peacefully.

Mexico was in the midst of its own civil war at the time and had its hands full.

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Mexico was in the midst of its own civil war at the time and had its hands full.

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plus we'd already sent their asses packing a few years earlier, we did agree, however, as a term of the treaty, name an airport in SoCal after their leader, win/win I suppose

Logistics.

Union navy was at sea already to fight anyone. Invading union territory meant fighting a mechanized army able to move with tail at their leisure. Invading southern territory mean getting through union boats. Then being in hostile territory everywhere. Mexico would've meant fighting either army in the western theater. And they kinda sucked arse at fighting.

It is fascinating to think about, but after the revolutionary war I doubt many countries (outside of Great Britain) would be able to fight this fight and win - and GB knew the risk was too great. Obviously, the best time would have been right at the tail end of the war. Possibly attacking NY and DC head-on, while forces were fighting in the south. The Union army would then be forced to retreat from the south and go north. Depleted, they would at best be on even ground, at worst be beaten soundly. The wild card would be the Confederacy. If they choose to not travel north and simply claim victory in the south, there would be an interesting dichotomy of a foreign nation claiming the north and the Confederacy claiming the south. If they choose to go north, and possibly fight alongside the Union army (unlikely), a number of different things could happen.

1) if the USA/CSA succeeds, perhaps the union would grant the CSA freedom in exchange for their efforts in helping fight off the foreign forces.
2) if the USA/CSA fails, then the whole continental USA would fall

Interestingly, the Confederate Navy commerce raiders such as CSS Alabama, CSS Shenandoah, etc., were built in British shipyards and mostly crewed by British mercenaries. After the war, Britain had to pay millions of dollars in claims for the destruction wrought on the US merchant fleet by them.