During the 1850s an the American Civil War, Cotton diplomacy was the idea that Britain and France required cotton from the South; South Carolina exclaimed, "Cotton is King!" (See King Cotton). However, the Confederate States of America significantly overestimated the leverage that the cotton trade would give them. A large part of Britain's food imports came from the United States; a war with the U.S. would cause starvation in Britain and would risk American attacks on the entire British merchant fleet. Britain did not need the cotton in 1861 because it had a huge supply in its warehouses. During the war it bought cotton from the U.S. and developed new cotton sources in India and Egypt.