Keep in mind, we were now an independent nation and England no longer had the power to control what the U. Another reason for the declaration of war was the British impressment of American seaman those in the navy into their military. They were struggling to keep their troop numbers up during their war with France and needed more people to fight for them.
So, they began taking American men from their ships and forcing them to fight for Great Britain. On top of this, the United States was becoming more and more irritated with the British for encouraging Native American hostility toward settlers living in what was known as the Northwest Territory which formed the states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois after the Revolutionary War. British officers inspect American sailors taken against their will, Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Before it was all over, the United States had invaded Canada which still belonged to Great Britain , the White House was set on fire, and Andrew Jackson became a household name. After several years of fighting, a peace delegation met in Belgium on Christmas Eve in This officially ending the war. This treaty meant the removal of any remaining British troops from the United States, the return of all conquered lands to their own country, and strict boundaries set between Canada and the U.
This war was important because we were able to establish ourselves as a true independent nation. It was also the only straight-line party vote for war in American history—note one member of the Federalists voted in favor of the measure.
In the end, the United States largely went to war due to opportunism, outrage, and flawed assumptions. It saw the opportunity to peel away the Canadian territories from British control. The country felt the need to extract revenge for mistreatment of American citizens, particularly at sea. And it demanded that the warring European states accede to the idea that American traders had the right to call at any port, at any time, without interference, despite having no ability to enforce such a concept.
The war itself managed to bankrupt the United States, both economically and ideologically, and three years of fighting effectively resulted in a return to the international status quo. It is difficult to assign a victor in the war—but it is extremely easy to point to the loser in the conflict.
Although neither the United States nor Great Britain obtained any significant possessions out of the fighting, the Native Americans who participated certainly sustained major geographic losses. Not only did the remnants of the Shawnee Confederation essentially get pushed out of the Northwest Territory, the conflict also convinced future President Andrew Jackson of the need to create a permanent barrier between the Native American and white populations of the United States.
When he assumed office, he soon moved to transfer the Five Civilized Tribes which had almost entirely refused to participate in the war west of the Mississippi River.
The War of , the first declared war of the United States, was one of the stranger conflicts in American history. Its poorly-defined objectives, lack of cohesive political support, and terrible execution have all contributed to help it fade into obscurity in American History.
Later, larger conflicts, many with clear-cut victory at the end rather than an effective draw, have long overshadowed the War of —and yet, the decision to go to war created many of the follow-on precedents that framed future decisions to declare a state of war.
Bickham, Troy O. New York: Oxford University Press, Hickey, John. The War of A Forgotten Conflict. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, ; reprint Perkins, Bradford. Prologue to War: England and the United States, Berkeley: University of California Press, Stagg, J.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, The War of Conflict for a Continent. New York: Cambridge University Press, From Colony to Superpower: U. The Admiralty determined that they were U. The fourth truly was a deserter, and was summarily hanged. In , the Admiralty finally agreed to pay reparations to the United States for killing its personnel and damaging its warship, by which time the case had long since influenced American decision making regarding the question of declaring war.
See Walter R. Stagg, Mr. The war began with an attack on Canada, both as an effort to gain land and to cut off British supply lines to Tecumseh's Indian confederation, which had long troubled the US. The initial battles in Canada were not as easy as the War Hawks hoped, and the inexperienced American soldiers were pushed back rapidly. General William Henry Harrison's forces did manage to kill Tecumseh at the Battle of the Thames in , in the midst of a decisive victory against the British General Isaac Brock's smaller force.
The US troops were badly routed. The city of Washington was evacuated, and the British burned the Capitol and the White House, along with most of nonresidential Washington.
The British pressed onward, and Admiral Cochrane sought to invade Baltimore. General Ross was killed as his forces advanced towards the city, and their movement stalled. Most Western and Southern congressmen supported war, while Federalists especially New Englanders who relied heavily on trade with Britain accused war advocates of using the excuse of maritime rights to promote their expansionist agenda.
In order to strike at Great Britain, U. On the other side, they faced a well-managed defense coordinated by Sir Isaac Brock, the British soldier and administrator in charge in Upper Canada modern Ontario.
Harrison was subsequently able to retake Detroit with a victory in the Battle of Thames in which Tecumseh was killed. Meanwhile, the U. As large numbers of troops arrived, British forces raided the Chesapeake Bay and moved in on the U. British forces subsequently left the Chesapeake Bay and began gathering their efforts for a campaign against New Orleans. By that time, peace talks had already begun at Ghent modern Belgium , and Britain moved for an armistice after the failure of the assault on Baltimore.
On December 24, , commissioners signed the Treaty of Ghent , which would be ratified the following February. On January 8, , unaware that peace had been concluded, British forces mounted a major attack in the Battle of New Orleans , only to meet with defeat at the hands of future U.
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