The War of 1812: Difference between revisions

[[File:Francis-Scott-Key_9189.jpg|thumb|400px|The American view of the war: "Oh say! Can you see?'']]

 

 

The causes of the war basically boil down to the knock-on effects of the [[Napoleonic Wars]]. Traders in the US had become rich from war-profiteering; basically, selling to both sides in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Both sides had declared an embargo upon each other, and commissioned privateers and used their navies to raid each others' shipping. After their sound victory at Trafalgar in 1805, the British were suddenly in a much better position to confiscate American trade bound for France - and they did just that. Moreover, the expansion of the Royal Navy left them short of sailors. As a result, Royal Navy began to conscript sailors into the navy in British ports and began to search US vessels they encountered for deserters - easily identifiable by their RN tattoos. Some ten thousand men were thus taken from American merchant vessels and pressed into RN service. Virtually all of these men actually ''were'' deserters from the Royal Navy, but that was besides the point. The facts were, the Royal Navy was ignoring the sovereignty of the United States, which had real troubles being taken seriously as a country abroad (and, to a certain extent, at home). The traders who actually owned the ships in question didn't mind - they were raking it in and entry into the war was the ''last'' thing they wanted - but a new generation of Americans who had not experienced the hardships of [[The American Revolution]] and its aftermath were eager to prove their worth and wage a Second American War of Independence to drive the British from the continent.

The confrontation continued until late 1814 where persisting military costs and fatigue caused the forces to [[Peace Conference|enter peace talks]], both sides having reached a stalemate without having made much ground. The Treaty of Ghent was eventually formed, relegating all captured land back to whoever had originally owned it. The treaty was signed December 24, 1814 and took effect February 18, 1815, though the biggest battles of the war occurred during peace talks and in the time it took for new about the treaty to filter down. Most notable of these was the Battle of New Orleans, a US victory which effectively secured the (gateway to the) Mississippi river system for them.

 

With the acceptance of the treaty everything more or less returned to how it had been previous to the confrontation. Neither side retained any land it captured (though the U.S. managed to seize Mobile from Spain) and the only party that ultimately lost was the Natives, who lost their bid for their own neutral state during peace talks. Losses are estimated at 5000 casualties on the British side and 19,260 on the American side; though most militia and Native losses went unrecorded. No compensation was paid by either side for damages though the British did pay $1,204,960 in damages to Washington to reimburse the slave-owners whose slaves defected to the Canadian side or escaped in the confusion of the war.

 

Today the war is largely forgotten due to its lacklustre outcome; other than being the source of the US national anthem - the ''Star-Spangled Banner'' - the war is barely remembered there. In Canada, however, it was a defining event that fostered a quiet determination to remain British and distinct from the United States. After the creation of the Canadian nation, the outcome of the war became a point of national pride. In Britain, of course, only historians remember it. That and people who watched ''Hornblower''. As for the actual outcome of the war, the only clear losers were the Amerindians, whose last best attempt at uniting in the face of Western Imperialism had failed. Their populations devastated and displaced by the US campaign, they were no longer able to form a serious check to the western expansion of the United States. The United States also secured New Orleans right at the last second - if the war had dragged on another few months and Cabinet had deemed it worthwhile to take New Orleans back, the relatively small and over-stretched US Army would not have been able to defend the town. As it was, they were very fortunate to capture it when they did, as it meant that there would be no foreign checks to US expansion through central-northern America either.

 

 

Bernard Cornwell, author of the [[Sharpe]] series, summed up the war very well: "What was to be expected in each theatre was inverted, with the exception of the major battle: The British inflicted a string of defeats on the numerically superior American Army, but lost the Battles of New Orleans and Plattsburgh. The US Navy inflicted a series of defeats on the far more powerful Royal Navy, but failed to prevent them raiding the Chesapeake and burning Washington."

* [[The Empire]]: In America, the war is remembered as a fight against the British Empire. In Canada, it is remembered as a war against an Imperialist United States.

* [[Famous Last Words]]: "Don't give up the ship!" Captain James Lawrence's dying words, shortly before the ''USS Chesapeake'' was taken by a boarding party from ''HMS Shannon''. His good friend, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, later named his flagship ''USS Lawrence'', put the phrase on his battle flag, and used it as his [[Battle Cry]] at the Battle of Lake Erie. [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|He won the battle.]]

* [[Graceful Loser]]: Always the case with surrenders, to the point that Isaac Brock's motif was tricking major American fortifications into surrendering.

* [[Gondor Calls for Aid]]: The Canadian forces were bolstered with escaped Loyalists, former slaves and Native Peoples. Similarly, the American defenders at New Orleans included Kentucky frontiersmen, Creole aristocrats, free men of color, and frickin' ''pirates'' fighting for their new nation.

* [[Pirates]]: Baltimore privateers were famous or infamous depending on which side you were on.

** Jean Lafitte being a more literal example.

* [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]]: Much of the Canadian forces, and some of the American forces, specifically the Indiana Rangers.

* [[Recruiting the Criminal]]: The wanted pirate Jean Lafitte earned a full pardon for the indispensable service his artillery provided at New Orleans.

* [[Took a Level In Badass]]: The American army under Winfield Scott and Jacob Brown during the 1814 Niagara Campaign.

* [[Underdogs Never Lose]]: The Canadian forces inflicted far greater casualties against a larger opposing army without much support from Britain. Meanwhile the young United States was able to militarily challenge the most powerful nation in the world and fight it to a standstill.

* [[We Win Because You Did Not]]: Even though America failed to accomplish most of its primary objectives, the US maintains that it "won" because it didn't technically lose ("We got respect from Britain"). While Canada takes the same opinion for themselves ("We threw back multiple American invasions from our lands").

* [[You Are in Command Now]]: John Macdonell after the death of Isaac Brock. Unfortunately, it didn't last too long.