The Impact of the War of 1812 on the United States

Introduction

Anglo-American war of 1812

The Anglo-American war of 1812 has pitted the United States to the British Empire, between June 1812 and February 1815. This war is also known by the Noms de guerre of 1812, the second war of independence, and even more rarely US-British war. The name "War of 1812" can sometimes lead to confusion since the war of invasion of Russia by Napoleon Bonaparte, the Russian campaign, took place the same year (Benn, Carl, Marston, pp. 31-35).

While the United Kingdom would provide a major war effort because of its conflict with Napoleonic France, the United States declared war on June 18th 1812 to liberate the territories that were under the British Empire who had inhabited by English for forty years, and maintained many cultural and commercial relations with the United States (Benn, Carl, Marston, pp. 31-35).

Among the reasons were less explicit resentment and anger caused by the forced conscription of American sailors in the Royal Navy, the British suspected them to be deserters, the weakening of U.S. trade caused by the blockade of the British mainland ports Europe, as well as support from the United Kingdom to American Indians defending their land against land speculators and the first American settlers to the West. In the south, the violent war of the Creeks, skillfully manipulated by speculators and future president Andrew Jackson, will be the continuation of this conflict, which will give a pretext to justify colonialism, but one of his heroes, the woodsman Davy Crockett was elected to the Capitol and will oppose the expansionist ambitions of Jackson in the years 1827 to 1834, when the Indian Removal Act (Benn, Carl, Marston, pp. 31-35).

The war was fought in three theaters: the Atlantic Ocean, the Great Lakes region and southern states. At the beginning of the war, the United States tried to invade the British North American colonies, but were driven back (making Detroit , Battle of Queenston Heights (Langguth, pp. 1-177).

Then, the Royal Navy had blockaded the East Coast, thereby weakening the U.S. economy due to the drastic reduction in U.S. agricultural exports (even if the embargo encouraged the emergence of local industry). Their domination of the seas allowed the British to conduct coastal raids and burned Washington in August 1814. However, the naval battles on the Great Lakes turned to the advantage of the United States (Benn, Carl, Marston, pp. 31-35).

Although the British have had the upper hand in most of the commitments, the vast majority of battles are part of American myth, especially the Battle of New Orleans during which General Andrew Jackson inflicted on the British one of the most severe defeats in their history, heavily publicized by the lobbyists who supported him. Ironically, this last battle took place two weeks after signing the Treaty of Ghent, December 24, 1814, which ended the conflict and restore conditions for a pre-war status quo ante bellum (Black, Jeremy, pp. 44-69).

Causes of war

Trade tensions

The war of 1812 is partly ...