Lecture 3: The War of 1812

Lecture 3: The War of 1812

Objectives

By the end of the lecture, students will be able to:

• define key vocabulary in context
• explain the causes and effects of the War of 1812

Key Vocabulary/Events/People

• War of 1812
• James Madison
• Orders of Council
• The Star-Spangled Banner
• Andrew Jackson
• Chesapeake
• Francis Scott Key
• embargo

Introduction

   The War of 1812 brought the United States onto the world’s stage in a conflict that ranged throughout the American Northeast, Midwest, and Southeast, into Canada, and onto the high seas and Great Lakes. The United States went to war against Great Britain. The British were already waging a global war against France, one which had been raging since 1793. Canada, then under British rule, became the primary battleground between the young republic and the old empire.

Unfinished Troubles with Great Britain

      The tension between the United States and Great Britain flared up, again during the Napoleonic Wars when, to maintain its control of the seas, Britain interfered with American shipping and engaged in the impressments, or seizure, of its seamen, forcing them to serve in the British Navy. The United States also accused the British of encouraging Indian tribes to attack western settlements, and some Americans even dreamed of conquering Canada, still a British colony. 

  The seeds of war were sown in many places. Since their war had broken out, Britain and France had both tried to restrict international trade. The United States was put in an awkward position, unable to trade with either world power without incurring (to incur: to suffer, sustain, or experience) the wrath (the wrath: extreme anger, rage, exasperation) of the other. In response, Congress passed a series of non-importation acts and embargos, each time trying to force the European powers to feel the sting (the sting: the piercing of the skin) of losing access to American markets. Europe was largely unmoved, and the United States fell into an economic depression.

Overview of the War

   The immediate causes of the War of 1812 were a series of economic sanctions taken by the British and French against the US as part of the Napoleonic Wars and American outrage at the British practice of impressment, especially after the Chesapeake incident of 1807. In response to the 1806 British Orders in Council, which crippled American trade, the US (under Jefferson) first tried various retaliatory embargoes. These embargoes hurt the US far more than they did Britain, angering American citizens and providing support to War Hawks in Congress like Henry Clay. In 1812, with President Madison in office, Congress declared war against the British.

   On the Mid-Atlantic Coast, British troops landed in the Chesapeake Bay area in 1814 and marched towards Washington. US General William Winder made an attempt to stop the British forces, commanded by General Robert Ross, at Bladensburg. 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 the non-residential Washington.

   The War of 1812 Brings Mixed Results

   Finally, on June 18, 1812, President Madison felt he had to give in to the war fever. Although the nation was woefully unprepared and all the Federalists in the House of Representatives voted no, war was declared. It was a reckless decision since many people opposed the conflict. At the time, the war was referred to by its opponents as “Mr. Madison’s War.” It might as well have been called the “War for Canada,” the “Indian War Beyond the Appalachians,” or the “Second War for American Independence.” Probably because the reasons for it were so mixed, the conflict has become known in American history only by date—1812.

    The United States entered the war seeking to secure commercial rights and uphold national honor. The American strategy was to quickly bring Great Britain to the negotiating table on these issues by invading Canada. Captured Canadian territory could be used as a powerful bargaining chip against the crown.

   The invasion of Canada, which began in the summer of 1812, ended in disaster. By the end of the year 1812, American forces had been routed at the Battle of Queenstown Heights on the Niagara River, a thrust into modern-day Québec had been turned back after advancing fewer than a dozen miles, and Detroit had been surrendered to the Canadians. Meanwhile, British-allied Native Americans continued their raids in Indiana and Illinois, massacring many settlers. 

The British Burn Washington, D. C.

    By 1814 British landing parties were burning towns all along the coast. That summer they sent a sizable force up the Chesapeake Bay. The redcoats brushed aside some hastily assembled American troops and entered Washington on August 24. Madison and other federal officials had to flee from their own capital. In revenge for the American raid on York, the capital of Canada, the British burned the Capitol, the White House, and other public buildings.

Although the burning of Washington had little military significance, it was a severe blow to national pride. From Washington, the British mounted an assault on Baltimore. When it failed, they planned a three-pronged attack. One was to smash across the border at Niagara into western New York. Another was to follow the same route of lakes that Burgoyne had taken thirty-five years before. The British were stopped on both campaigns. The final prong was an attack on New Orleans.

   The Aftermath of the War 

Within a few years, the United States and Great Britain were able to reach an agreement on many of the issues left open at Ghent. In 1815 a commercial treaty reopened trade between the two countries. In 1817 the Rush-Bagot agreement limited the number of warships on the Great Lakes. In 1818 a British-American commission set the northern boundary of the Louisiana Territory at the forty-ninth parallel as far west as the Rocky Mountains. The two nations then agreed to a ten-year joint occupation of the Oregon Territory.

No one knew it at the time, but these agreements laid the groundwork for lasting peace between the two nations. There remained one outstanding piece of unfinished business. Most Americans assumed that Spanish Florida would eventually become part of the United States, and American settlers began to move in on their own. In 1817 there were outbreaks of violence between white settlers and Seminole Indians who were aided by fugitive slaves from Georgia. Andrew Jackson was given command of United States troops, with vague instructions to bring peace and order to the borderland region. Jackson interpreted these instructions freely.

   Many times he dealt with Indians simply by destroying their villages. He had little respect for international law. When the Seminoles retreated into Florida, Jackson pursued them across the border and hunted them down in Spanish territory. When he reached Pensacola, he threw out the Spanish governor, set up his own garrisons, and claimed the territory for the United States. 

   The Monroe Doctrine

    The war, which Americans saw themselves as having won (even though neither side made any substantial gains), sparked a period of strong nationalist feeling. In international affairs, this spirit was reflected in President James Monroe’s declaration in 1823, later known as the Monroe Doctrine, that the American continents were “henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers” and that the United States, for its part, would not interfere in European conflicts. In his speech to Congress in 1823, President James Monroe warned European powers not to attempt further colonization or otherwise interfere in the Western Hemisphere, stating that the United States would view any such interference as a potentially hostile act. Monroe Doctrine would become a cornerstone of U.S diplomacy for generations. 

     The Monroe Doctrine in Practice: U.S. Foreign Policy

At the time Monroe delivered his message to Congress, the United States was still a young, relatively minor player on the world stage. It did not have the military or naval power to back up its assertion of unilateral control over the Western Hemisphere, and Monroe’s bold policy statement was largely ignored outside U.S. borders. 

In 1833, the United States did not invoke the Monroe Doctrine to oppose the British occupation of the Falkland Islands; it also declined to act when Britain and France imposed a naval blockade against Argentina in 1845.

Conclusion

         In America, the war was followed by a half-decade now called the "Era of Good Feelings." The coming of world peace spurred an economic revival, and the collapse of the Federalist Party, which had bitterly opposed the war, removed much of the rancor from American politics. However, this was only an era, not an eternity. Having won its “second independence,” the United States would soon have to confront its first sin—slavery.

 

References

 

· Adams, Henry (1986) [1891]. History of the United States of America During the Administration of James Madison. Library of America. ISBN 978-0-940450-35-6.

· Benn, Carl (2008). The War of 1812. Osprey. ISBN 978-1-84176-466-5. 

· Berton, Pierre (2011). Pierre Berton's War of 1812. Doubleday Canada. ISBN 978-0-385-67650-2.

· Black, Jeremy (2009). The War of 1812 in the Age of Napoleon. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-4521-1. by English military historian

·        Borneman, Walter R. (2004). 1812: The War That Forged a Nation. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-053112-6., popular

· Hickey, Donald R. (2006). Don't Give Up the Ship!: Myths of the War of 1812. Robin Brass Studio. ISBN 978-1-896941-45-5.

· Hickey, Donald R. (2012). 187 Things You Should Know about the War of 1812: An Easy Question-and-Answer Guide. Maryland Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-9842135-2-8.

· Hitsman, J. M. The Incredible War of 1812 (1965), survey by Canadian scholar

· Langguth, A. J. Union 1812: The Americans Who Fought the Second War of Independence (2006) 495pp, popular history

· Latimer, Jon, 1812: War with America (Harvard, 2007). A scholarly British perspective ISBN 0-674-02584-9

· Malcomson, Robert. Historical Dictionary of the War of 1812 (Landham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2006). ISBN 0-8108-5499-6, 699pp

· Stagg, J.C.A. The War of 1812: Conflict for a Continent (Cambridge Essential Histories, 2012) ISBN 0-521-72686-7

· Suthren, Victor. The War of 1812 (1999). ISBN 0-7710-8317-3

· Zuehlke, Mark. For Honour's Sake: The War of 1812 and the Brokering of an Uneasy Peace. (2007) by Canadian military historian