France and the Confederate States of America

More ominous for the United States was the idea that the success of Napoleon's Grand Design depended on an independent Confederacy to serve as a buffer state between the United States and Mexico.... Chevalier, obviously with Napoleon III's approval, blatantly announced that France's purpose was to help the Confederacy win independence, thwart US expansion, and shield Mexico from US interference.

--Don H. Doyle, The Cause of All Nations: An International History of the American Civil War (New York: Basic Books, 2016), 109.