The War of 1812 is what people call a somewhat useless war.The war started with a conflict with France and Britain.In this essay you will know how the conflict of Britain and France escalated into the War of 1812 involving the United States. America and Britain were not the only ones fighting in this war. The Native Americans or ¨Indians” were also dragged into this war. They were on the side of britain.America had to have self confidence and perseverance to win this war.
The main causes of the War of 1812 were, according to sparknotes.com ¨economic sanctions taken by the British and French against the U.S as part of the Napoleonic Wars¨. Another major cause for the war was America's reaction to Britain's continuous practice of impressment. Impressment is when someone takes men into a military or naval force against their will. The President of the United States was James Madison. Henry Clay and John Calhoun were members of Congress and were war hawks. They pushed and urged Madison to go to war. After all the pressure, Madison finally decided that he had no other option than to declare war.
Finally on June 18th 1812 Madison signed a declaration of war against Britain. Congress ultimately voted for war, though the House and the Senate were still divided about the decision. As war broke out, America, Britain and their allies began to rally their militaries. Slowly but surely, violence and shots were coming to North America. The two sides finally clashed in The Battle of Tippecanoe. The U.S forces were led by Indiana Territory governor William Henry Harrison and came out victorious. United States forces attacked Canada, a British colony. American officials were too optimistic about their successful invasion at first. Shortly after, they faced a great defense by Britain that was coordinated by Sir Isaac Brock who was a British soldier and administrator in Upper Canada (modern day Ontario). Shortly after, the US suffered embarrassing losses and they were chased across the Canadian border, scaring the US and causing them to surrender Detroit without any shots fired.
The war was looking a lot better in the west because of Oliver Hazard Perry's success in the Battle of Lake Erie. After regaining control of Lake Erie, the Northwest Territory was strictly under American control. Meanwhile, Harrison as mentioned before, had finally retaken Detroit. His forces took it in the Battle of Thames, the battle where Native American commander Tecumseh was killed. Things were looking good for America. The US navy was doing a lot better than the Royal navy in these early months of the war. The tide however had changed, Napoleon had finally been defeated.Therefore Britain's attention was fully on the United States. Large numbers of troops arrived in America.The British forces raided the Chesapeake Bay. They later moved in on the capital of the United States, Washington D.C. Their troops burned everything to the ground, including the White House. Shortly after they bombed American troops at Fort McHenry but the troops withstood it for 25 hours. The troops raised a flag while they were being bombarded and Francis Scott Key became inspired and wrote The Star Spangled Banner, the national anthem of America.
After Fort McHenry the British had their sights set on New Orleans. By that time however, peace talks between both sides had begun at Ghent. Britain had become in a way less confident in themselves after their failure in battles such as the one in Baltimore. The United States gave up its demands of impressment during negotiations with Britain while Britain said that it would leave Canada's borders and give up on forming a Native American state. Shortly afterwards on December 24th 1814, commissioners signed the Treaty of Ghent. On January 8th, unaware of the treaty, the British were preparing for an attack on New Orleans.There waiting was the army of the future president Andrew Jackson.The British army was heavily defeated by Jackson´s army, they did not stand a chance.Then so marked the last battle of the war, even though the war was already technically over.
To conclude, the war was remembered as a minor conflict to Americans but was a huge turning point for Native Americans and Canadians. They see it as a turning point in their struggle to govern themselves.The war however did have a far reaching impact on the US. It ended years and years of fighting between the countries.This time after the war began to what they call the Era of Good Feelings.The war left some other marks too, like the end of the Federalist Party. Most of all, the war boosted America’s confidence and encouraged them to expand. This would shape the 19th century. It was not a memorable war but it was very important in America’s history.