Results of the War of 1812
Encyclopedia
Results of the war between Britain and the United States involved no geographical changes, and no major policy changes. However all the causes of the war had disappeared with the end of the war between Britain and France and with the destruction of the power of First Nation Indian tribes. American fears of the Indians ended, as did British plans to create a buffer Indian state. After Napoleon's defeat in 1814, Britain was no longer at war with France and there were no restrictions on neutral trade; the British suspended their policy of impressment
of American sailors, and never resumed it--but they insisted they still had the right to resume it. Americans regained their honor and proclaimed victory in what they called a "second war of independence" for the decisive defeat of the British invaders at New Orleans seemed to prove that Britain could never regain control of America, and the threat of secession by New England ended with the failure of the Hartford Convention
.
In Britain, the importance of the conflict was totally overshadowed by European wars, especially the War of the Sixth Coalition
against Napoleon, who returned to Paris in March, 1815, and was finally defeated at Waterloo
100 days later.
Upper Canada emerged from the war with a sense of unity and pride as part of the Empire. Canadians claimed the war as a victory for their militia and a rebuff of republicanism, as they credited their militia for the successful repulse of American attempts to invade Upper and Lower Canada.
arranged an armistice with his counterpart Henry Dearborn
. However, President James Madison
decided to continue the war. In 1813, Russia offered to mediate a peace, but London rejected the offer because it might compromise British interests in Europe. Finally Great Britain and the United States agreed to commence peace negotiations in January 1814; the talks were delayed.
. Both sides began negotiations with realistic demands. The U.S. wanted an end to all British time practices it deemed objectionable and also demanded cessions of Canadian territory and guaranteed fishing rights off Newfoundland. Britain sought a neutral Indian buffer state in the American Northwest, and wanted to suck parts of Maine that had been captured to provide a land corridor to Quebec from the maritime colonies. After months of negotiations, against the background of changing military victories, defeats and losses, the parties finally realized that their nations wanted peace and there was no real reason to continue the war. Now each side was happy of the war. Export trade was all but paralyzed and after Napoleon fell in 1812 France was no longer an enemy of Britain, so the Royal Navy no longer needed to stop American shipments to France, and it no longer needed more seamen. The British were preoccupied in rebuilding Europe after the apparent final defeat of Napoleon. The negotiators agreed to return to the status quo ante bellum
in the Treaty of Ghent
signed on December 24, 1814.
The British—but not the Americans—knew when they signed that a battle was imminent at New Orleans
(it was fought on January 8, 1815). This treaty did not go into effect until it was formally ratified by both sides in February, 1815.
The Treaty of Ghent failed to secure official British acknowledgment of American maritime rights, but in the century of peace among the naval powers from 1815 until World War I these rights were not seriously violated. The course of the war made irrelevant all of the issues
over which the United States had fought, especially since the First Nations had been defeated and the Americans scored enough victories (especially at New Orleans) to satisfy honor and the sense of becoming fully independent from Britain.
in battle in 1813, the First Nation military power ended. The natives were the main losers in the war, losing British protection, and never regained their influence.
In the Southeast
, Andrew Jackson
's destruction of Britain's allies, the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814, ended the threat of Native American hostilities in that region. It opened vast areas in Georgia
and Alabama
for settlement as plantations and farmlands. The U.S. occupied all of West Florida
during the war and in 1819 purchased the rest of Florida
from Spain
, thus closing the base of weapons for hostile tribes. Creek Indians who escaped to Spanish Florida joined the Seminoles there, and put up a long resistance known as the Seminole Wars
.
In the treaty the British promised not to arm the Native Americans in the U.S. from Canada (nor even trade with them), and the U.S.-Canada border was largely pacified. However, some Americans assumed that the British continued to conspire with their former Native American allies in an attempt to forestall U.S. hegemony in the Great Lakes region. Such perceptions were faulty, argues Calloway (1987). After the Treaty of Ghent, the Native Americans in the Great Lakes region became an undesirable burden to British policymakers.
to throw off the "British yoke", but that did not happen. After 1815, British officials, Anglican clergy and Canadians loyal to the Empire
tried to spot and root out American political ideals, such as republicanism. Thus the British and Loyalist elite were able to set the different colonies of what would later become Canada on a different course from that of their former enemy. Canada discouraged further American immigration.
When the United States attacked British North America, most of the British forces were engaged in the Napoleonic Wars. Thus British North America had minimal troops to defend against the United States, who had a much larger (though poorly trained) military force. For most of the war, British North America stood alone against a much stronger American force. Reinforcements from the United Kingdom did not arrive until 1814, the final year of the war. The repelling of the American force helped to foster British loyalties in the colonies that later became Canada.
The nationalistic sentiment caused a suspicion of such American ideas as republicanism
, which would frustrate political reform in Upper and Lower Canada until the Rebellions of 1837
. However, the War of 1812 started the process that ultimately led to Canadian Confederation
in 1867. Canadian writer Pierre Berton
has written that, although later events such as the rebellions and the Fenian raids
of the 1860s were more important, Canada would have become part of the United States if the War of 1812 had not taken place because more and more American settlers would have arrived and Canadian nationalism would not have developed.
The War of 1812 was highly significant in Britain's North American colonies. After the war British sympathizers portrayed the war was as a successful fight for national survival against an American democratic force that threatened the peace and stability the Canadians desired.
A related (and historically false) Canadian myth from the war was that Canadian militiamen had performed admirably while the British officers were largely ineffective. Jack Granatstein
has termed this the "militia myth", and he feels it has had a deep effect on Canadian military thinking, which placed more stress on a citizens' militia than on a professional standing army. The United States suffered from a similar "frontiersman myth" at the start of the war, believing falsely that individual initiative and marksmanship could be effective against a well disciplined British battle line. Granatstein argues that the militia was not particularly effective in the war and that any British military success was the work of British regular forces and the result of British dominion over the sea. Isaac Brock
, for example, was reluctant to trust the militia with muskets. The U.S. Army won most of its land victories late in the war, which subsequently ended all British invasions of the United States.
During the war, British officers constantly worried that the Americans would block the St. Lawrence River, which forms part of the Canadian border with the United States. If the U.S. military had done so, there would have been no British supply route for Upper Canada, where most of the land battles took place, and British forces would likely have had to withdraw or surrender all western British territory within a few months. British officers' dispatches after the war exhibited astonishment that the Americans never took such a simple step, but the British were not willing to count on the enemy repeating the mistake; as a result, Britain commissioned the Rideau Canal
, an expensive project connecting Kingston
, on Lake Ontario
, to the Ottawa River
, providing an alternate supply route that bypassed the part of the St. Lawrence River along the U.S. border. The settlement at the northeastern end of the canal, where it joins the Ottawa River, later became the city of Ottawa, Canada's fourth-largest city and its capital (placed inland to protect it from U.S. invasion—known then as the 'defensible backcountry'). Because population away from the St. Lawrence shores was negligible, the British in the years following the war took great lengths to ensure that backcountry settlement was increased. They settled soldiers and initiated assisted-immigration schemes, offering free land to farmers, mostly tenants of estates in the south of Ireland
. The canal project was not completed until 1832 and was never used for its intended purpose.
The Royal Navy
was acutely conscious that the United States Navy
had won most of the single-ship duels during the war. American privateers and commerce raiders had captured large numbers of British merchant ships, sending insurance rates up and embarrassing the Admiralty. Despite all this, Britain did win quite a few sea battles. More important, Britain imposed an effective blockade of American ports and captured many merchant ships. The Royal Navy had been able to deploy overwhelming strength to American waters, annihilating rather than merely denting American maritime trade. After the war the Royal Navy made some changes to its practices in construction and gunnery, but did not change its methods of manning the fleet.
The British Army regarded the conflict in Canada and America as a sideshow. Only one regiment, the 41st was awarded a battle honour (Detroit) from the war. The army was more interested in the lessons of the Peninsular War
in Spain. The few reverses in Canada and at New Orleans could be conveniently attributed to poor leadership or insuperable physical obstacles. If generalship had been better, it was believed, then British success would have been more frequent at sea and at New Orleans. Due to the huge, overwhelming success and pre-eminence of the Duke of Wellington
in Europe, the British army was to make no change to its systems of recruitment, discipline and awards of commissions for more than half a century.
The British suffered 5,000 killed or wounded soldiers and sailors in the war.
s, were to capture 298 ships (the total captures by all British naval or privateering vessels between the Great Lakes and the West Indies was 1,593 vessels).
. It demanded constitutional amendments to protect New England's interests against the West and the South. Secession talk was rife and the region might have threatened to secede from the Union if their demands were ignored, but the news of peace ended the movement.
The United States had faced near disaster in 1814, but the victories at the Battle of New Orleans
and the Battle of Baltimore
and what seemed to be a successful fight against the United Kingdom increased national patriotism and helped to unite the United States into one nation. The best-known patriotic legacy of the war was The Star Spangled Banner. The words are by Francis Scott Key, who after the bombardment of Fort McHenry set them to the music of a British song, "To Anacreon in Heaven." In 1889 the U.S. Navy began using The Star Spangled Banner at flag-raising ceremonies, a practice copied by the army. In 1931, Congress made it the U.S. national anthem.
Although neither side came away from the war with a clear-cut victory, the American people saw the War of 1812 as evidence of the success of the democratic experiment. The war ushered in a period of American history that has frequently been called "the Era of Good Feelings
," a time when, at least on the surface, most Americans felt unified behind a common purpose. The War of 1812 convinced the country that it could fend off any foreign threats and that its focus should be on expansion at home.
With the collapse of the Hartford Convention and news of the triumph at the Battle of New Orleans
, Americans had cause for celebration. In February President James Madison
sent Congress the treaty of peace. He congratulated the nation on the close of a war "waged with the success which is the natural result of the wisdom of the legislative councils, of the patriotism of the people, of the public spirit of the militia, and of the valour of the military and naval forces of the country." The spirit of nationalism and pride led to the collapse of the nay-sayer Federalist Party and the new Era of Good Feelings
.
One indirect result of the War of 1812 was the later election to the presidency of war heroes Andrew Jackson
and of William Henry Harrison
. Both of these men won military fame which had much to do with their elections. Another indirect result was the decline of Federalist power.
A significant military development was the increased emphasis by General Winfield Scott
on professionalism in the U.S. Army officer corps and in particular, the training of officers at the United States Military Academy
("West Point"). This new professionalism would become apparent during the Mexican-American War (1846–1848). After the Texas Annexation
by the U.S., the term Manifest Destiny
became a widely used political term for those who propagated American expansionism and military pride.
In a related development, the United States officially abandoned its reliance on the militia for its defense. Moreover, Army Corps of Engineers (which at that time controlled West Point), began building fortifications around New Orleans as a response to the British attack on the city during the war. This effort then grew into numerous civil river works, especially in the 1840s and 1850s under General Pierre Beauregard. The Corps remains the authority over Mississippi (and other) river works.
The embarrassing defeat of Fort Madison in what is now Iowa and Fort McKay in Prairie du Chien led to the fortification of the Mississippi, with the expansion of Fort Belle Fontaine near St. Louis, and the construction of Fort Armstrong
(1816) and Fort Edwards (1816) in Illinois, Fort Crawford
(1816) in Prairie du Chien, and Fort Snelling (1819) in Minnesota. Removal of all Indians from the Mississippi Valley became a top priority for the U.S. government.
by Francis Cabot Lowell. The war also spurred on construction of the Erie Canal
project, which was built to promote commercial links yet was also perceived as having military uses should the need ever arise.
As the charter of the First Bank of the United States
had been allowed to expire in 1811, the federal government was ill-prepared to finance the war and resorted to such expediencies as the suspension of specie payment and the issuance of Treasury Notes. These actions set a precedent for future Federal responses to financial crises. Also, this exposure of the nation's financial weaknesses explained in part the Congressional decision to charter the Second Bank of the United States
in 1816. The readiness of Southern leaders especially John C. Calhoun
to support such a measure also indicates a high degree of national feeling. Perhaps the clearest sign of a new sense of national unity was the victorious Democratic-Republican Party
, its long-time foes the Federalists vanished from national politics. The result was an Era of Good Feelings
with the lowest level of partisanship ever seen.
Canadians, however, contrasted their post-war economic stagnation to the booming American economy, which Desmond Morton believes led to the Rebellions of 1837
Impressment
Impressment, colloquially, "the Press", was the act of taking men into a navy by force and without notice. It was used by the Royal Navy, beginning in 1664 and during the 18th and early 19th centuries, in wartime, as a means of crewing warships, although legal sanction for the practice goes back to...
of American sailors, and never resumed it--but they insisted they still had the right to resume it. Americans regained their honor and proclaimed victory in what they called a "second war of independence" for the decisive defeat of the British invaders at New Orleans seemed to prove that Britain could never regain control of America, and the threat of secession by New England ended with the failure of the Hartford Convention
Hartford Convention
The Hartford Convention was an event spanning from December 15, 1814–January 4, 1815 in the United States during the War of 1812 in which New England's opposition to the war reached the point where secession from the United States was discussed...
.
In Britain, the importance of the conflict was totally overshadowed by European wars, especially the War of the Sixth Coalition
War of the Sixth Coalition
In the War of the Sixth Coalition , a coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Spain and a number of German States finally defeated France and drove Napoleon Bonaparte into exile on Elba. After Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia, the continental powers...
against Napoleon, who returned to Paris in March, 1815, and was finally defeated at Waterloo
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
100 days later.
Upper Canada emerged from the war with a sense of unity and pride as part of the Empire. Canadians claimed the war as a victory for their militia and a rebuff of republicanism, as they credited their militia for the successful repulse of American attempts to invade Upper and Lower Canada.
Efforts to end the war
Efforts to end the war began in 1812 when the chief U.S. diplomat in London proposed an armistice in return for a renunciation of impressments; the British refused. Later in 1812 when the British captured Detroit and news of the repeal of the Orders reached Washington, Sir George PrevostGeorge Prevost
Sir George Prévost, 1st Baronet was a British soldier and colonial administrator. Born in Hackensack, New Jersey, the eldest son of Swiss French Augustine Prévost, he joined the British Army as a youth and became a captain in 1784. Prévost served in the West Indies during the French Revolutionary...
arranged an armistice with his counterpart Henry Dearborn
Henry Dearborn
Henry Dearborn was an American physician, a statesman and a veteran of both the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. Born to Simon Dearborn and Sarah Marston in North Hampton, New Hampshire, he spent much of his youth in Epping, where he attended public schools...
. However, President James Madison
James Madison
James Madison, Jr. was an American statesman and political theorist. He was the fourth President of the United States and is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being the primary author of the United States Constitution and at first an opponent of, and then a key author of the United...
decided to continue the war. In 1813, Russia offered to mediate a peace, but London rejected the offer because it might compromise British interests in Europe. Finally Great Britain and the United States agreed to commence peace negotiations in January 1814; the talks were delayed.
Negotiations
At last in August 1814, peace discussions began in the neutral city of GhentGhent
Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...
. Both sides began negotiations with realistic demands. The U.S. wanted an end to all British time practices it deemed objectionable and also demanded cessions of Canadian territory and guaranteed fishing rights off Newfoundland. Britain sought a neutral Indian buffer state in the American Northwest, and wanted to suck parts of Maine that had been captured to provide a land corridor to Quebec from the maritime colonies. After months of negotiations, against the background of changing military victories, defeats and losses, the parties finally realized that their nations wanted peace and there was no real reason to continue the war. Now each side was happy of the war. Export trade was all but paralyzed and after Napoleon fell in 1812 France was no longer an enemy of Britain, so the Royal Navy no longer needed to stop American shipments to France, and it no longer needed more seamen. The British were preoccupied in rebuilding Europe after the apparent final defeat of Napoleon. The negotiators agreed to return to the status quo ante bellum
Status quo ante bellum
The term status quo ante bellum is Latin, meaning literally "the state in which things were before the war".The term was originally used in treaties to refer to the withdrawal of enemy troops and the restoration of prewar leadership. When used as such, it means that no side gains or loses...
in the Treaty of Ghent
Treaty of Ghent
The Treaty of Ghent , signed on 24 December 1814, in Ghent , was the peace treaty that ended the War of 1812 between the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
signed on December 24, 1814.
The British—but not the Americans—knew when they signed that a battle was imminent at New Orleans
Battle of New Orleans
The Battle of New Orleans took place on January 8, 1815 and was the final major battle of the War of 1812. American forces, commanded by Major General Andrew Jackson, defeated an invading British Army intent on seizing New Orleans and the vast territory the United States had acquired with the...
(it was fought on January 8, 1815). This treaty did not go into effect until it was formally ratified by both sides in February, 1815.
The Treaty of Ghent failed to secure official British acknowledgment of American maritime rights, but in the century of peace among the naval powers from 1815 until World War I these rights were not seriously violated. The course of the war made irrelevant all of the issues
Origins of the War of 1812
The War of 1812, between the United States of America and the British Empire , and Britain's Indian allies, lasted from 1812 to 1815. It was fought chiefly on the Atlantic Ocean and on the land, coasts and waterways of North America.There were several immediate stated causes for the U.S...
over which the United States had fought, especially since the First Nations had been defeated and the Americans scored enough victories (especially at New Orleans) to satisfy honor and the sense of becoming fully independent from Britain.
Native American affairs
A key reason that American frontiersmen were so much in favor of the war in the first place was the threat by various Native American tribes, which they blamed on intervention by British agents in Canada. In addition, they wanted access to lands that the British acknowledged belonged to the U.S. but that the British were blocking by inciting and arming the Native Americans. With the death of TecumsehTecumseh
Tecumseh was a Native American leader of the Shawnee and a large tribal confederacy which opposed the United States during Tecumseh's War and the War of 1812...
in battle in 1813, the First Nation military power ended. The natives were the main losers in the war, losing British protection, and never regained their influence.
In the Southeast
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
, Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...
's destruction of Britain's allies, the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814, ended the threat of Native American hostilities in that region. It opened vast areas in Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
and Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
for settlement as plantations and farmlands. The U.S. occupied all of West Florida
West Florida
West Florida was a region on the north shore of the Gulf of Mexico, which underwent several boundary and sovereignty changes during its history. West Florida was first established in 1763 by the British government; as its name suggests it largely consisted of the western portion of the region...
during the war and in 1819 purchased the rest of Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
from Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, thus closing the base of weapons for hostile tribes. Creek Indians who escaped to Spanish Florida joined the Seminoles there, and put up a long resistance known as the Seminole Wars
Seminole Wars
The Seminole Wars, also known as the Florida Wars, were three conflicts in Florida between the Seminole — the collective name given to the amalgamation of various groups of native Americans and Black people who settled in Florida in the early 18th century — and the United States Army...
.
In the treaty the British promised not to arm the Native Americans in the U.S. from Canada (nor even trade with them), and the U.S.-Canada border was largely pacified. However, some Americans assumed that the British continued to conspire with their former Native American allies in an attempt to forestall U.S. hegemony in the Great Lakes region. Such perceptions were faulty, argues Calloway (1987). After the Treaty of Ghent, the Native Americans in the Great Lakes region became an undesirable burden to British policymakers.
Canada
Some in Washington had expected the largely American population of Upper CanadaUpper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...
to throw off the "British yoke", but that did not happen. After 1815, British officials, Anglican clergy and Canadians loyal to the Empire
United Empire Loyalists
The name United Empire Loyalists is an honorific given after the fact to those American Loyalists who resettled in British North America and other British Colonies as an act of fealty to King George III after the British defeat in the American Revolutionary War and prior to the Treaty of Paris...
tried to spot and root out American political ideals, such as republicanism. Thus the British and Loyalist elite were able to set the different colonies of what would later become Canada on a different course from that of their former enemy. Canada discouraged further American immigration.
When the United States attacked British North America, most of the British forces were engaged in the Napoleonic Wars. Thus British North America had minimal troops to defend against the United States, who had a much larger (though poorly trained) military force. For most of the war, British North America stood alone against a much stronger American force. Reinforcements from the United Kingdom did not arrive until 1814, the final year of the war. The repelling of the American force helped to foster British loyalties in the colonies that later became Canada.
The nationalistic sentiment caused a suspicion of such American ideas as republicanism
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
, which would frustrate political reform in Upper and Lower Canada until the Rebellions of 1837
Rebellions of 1837
The Rebellions of 1837 were a pair of Canadian armed uprisings that occurred in 1837 and 1838 in response to frustrations in political reform. A key shared goal was the allowance of responsible government, which was eventually achieved in the incident's aftermath.-Rebellions:The rebellions started...
. However, the War of 1812 started the process that ultimately led to Canadian Confederation
Canadian Confederation
Canadian Confederation was the process by which the federal Dominion of Canada was formed on July 1, 1867. On that day, three British colonies were formed into four Canadian provinces...
in 1867. Canadian writer Pierre Berton
Pierre Berton
Pierre Francis de Marigny Berton, was a noted Canadian author of non-fiction, especially Canadiana and Canadian history, and was a well-known television personality and journalist....
has written that, although later events such as the rebellions and the Fenian raids
Fenian raids
Between 1866 and 1871, the Fenian raids of the Fenian Brotherhood who were based in the United States; on British army forts, customs posts and other targets in Canada, were fought to bring pressure on Britain to withdraw from Ireland. They divided many Catholic Irish-Canadians, many of whom were...
of the 1860s were more important, Canada would have become part of the United States if the War of 1812 had not taken place because more and more American settlers would have arrived and Canadian nationalism would not have developed.
The War of 1812 was highly significant in Britain's North American colonies. After the war British sympathizers portrayed the war was as a successful fight for national survival against an American democratic force that threatened the peace and stability the Canadians desired.
A related (and historically false) Canadian myth from the war was that Canadian militiamen had performed admirably while the British officers were largely ineffective. Jack Granatstein
Jack Granatstein
Jack Lawrence Granatstein, OC, FRSC is a Canadian historian who specializes in political and military history.-Education:Born in Toronto, Ontario, Granatstein received a graduation diploma from Le College militaire royal de Saint-Jean in 1959, his BA from the Royal Military College of Canada in...
has termed this the "militia myth", and he feels it has had a deep effect on Canadian military thinking, which placed more stress on a citizens' militia than on a professional standing army. The United States suffered from a similar "frontiersman myth" at the start of the war, believing falsely that individual initiative and marksmanship could be effective against a well disciplined British battle line. Granatstein argues that the militia was not particularly effective in the war and that any British military success was the work of British regular forces and the result of British dominion over the sea. Isaac Brock
Isaac Brock
Major-General Sir Isaac Brock KB was a British Army officer and administrator. Brock was assigned to Canada in 1802. Despite facing desertions and near-mutinies, he commanded his regiment in Upper Canada successfully for many years...
, for example, was reluctant to trust the militia with muskets. The U.S. Army won most of its land victories late in the war, which subsequently ended all British invasions of the United States.
During the war, British officers constantly worried that the Americans would block the St. Lawrence River, which forms part of the Canadian border with the United States. If the U.S. military had done so, there would have been no British supply route for Upper Canada, where most of the land battles took place, and British forces would likely have had to withdraw or surrender all western British territory within a few months. British officers' dispatches after the war exhibited astonishment that the Americans never took such a simple step, but the British were not willing to count on the enemy repeating the mistake; as a result, Britain commissioned the Rideau Canal
Rideau Canal
The Rideau Canal , also known as the Rideau Waterway, connects the city of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on the Ottawa River to the city of Kingston, Ontario on Lake Ontario. The canal was opened in 1832 as a precaution in case of war with the United States and is still in use today, with most of its...
, an expensive project connecting Kingston
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...
, on Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south by the American state of New York. Ontario, Canada's most populous province, was named for the lake. In the Wyandot language, ontarío means...
, to the Ottawa River
Ottawa River
The Ottawa River is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. For most of its length, it now defines the border between these two provinces.-Geography:...
, providing an alternate supply route that bypassed the part of the St. Lawrence River along the U.S. border. The settlement at the northeastern end of the canal, where it joins the Ottawa River, later became the city of Ottawa, Canada's fourth-largest city and its capital (placed inland to protect it from U.S. invasion—known then as the 'defensible backcountry'). Because population away from the St. Lawrence shores was negligible, the British in the years following the war took great lengths to ensure that backcountry settlement was increased. They settled soldiers and initiated assisted-immigration schemes, offering free land to farmers, mostly tenants of estates in the south of Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. The canal project was not completed until 1832 and was never used for its intended purpose.
Britain
In contrast to Canada, the War is seldom remembered in Britain today. Chiefly, this is because it was overshadowed by the dramatic events of the contemporary Napoleonic wars, and because Britain herself neither gained nor lost by the peace settlement, except that it kept control of Canada.The Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
was acutely conscious that the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
had won most of the single-ship duels during the war. American privateers and commerce raiders had captured large numbers of British merchant ships, sending insurance rates up and embarrassing the Admiralty. Despite all this, Britain did win quite a few sea battles. More important, Britain imposed an effective blockade of American ports and captured many merchant ships. The Royal Navy had been able to deploy overwhelming strength to American waters, annihilating rather than merely denting American maritime trade. After the war the Royal Navy made some changes to its practices in construction and gunnery, but did not change its methods of manning the fleet.
The British Army regarded the conflict in Canada and America as a sideshow. Only one regiment, the 41st was awarded a battle honour (Detroit) from the war. The army was more interested in the lessons of the Peninsular War
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...
in Spain. The few reverses in Canada and at New Orleans could be conveniently attributed to poor leadership or insuperable physical obstacles. If generalship had been better, it was believed, then British success would have been more frequent at sea and at New Orleans. Due to the huge, overwhelming success and pre-eminence of the Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...
in Europe, the British army was to make no change to its systems of recruitment, discipline and awards of commissions for more than half a century.
The British suffered 5,000 killed or wounded soldiers and sailors in the war.
Bermuda
American War of 1812 was the encore of Bermudian privateering, which had died out after the 1790s, due partly to the build up of the naval base in Bermuda, which reduced the Admiralty's reliance on privateers in the western Atlantic, and partly to successful American legal suits, and claims for damages pressed against British privateers, a large portion of which were aimed squarely at the Bermudians. During the course of the American War of 1812, Bermudian privateers, with their fast Bermuda sloopBermuda sloop
The Bermuda sloop is a type of fore-and-aft rigged sailing vessel developed on the islands of Bermuda in the 17th century. In its purest form, it is single-masted, although ships with such rigging were built with as many as three masts, which are then referred to as schooners...
s, were to capture 298 ships (the total captures by all British naval or privateering vessels between the Great Lakes and the West Indies was 1,593 vessels).
United States
The gloom in New England, which staunchly opposed the war, culminated in December 1814, as delegates from five states met secretly in the Hartford ConventionHartford Convention
The Hartford Convention was an event spanning from December 15, 1814–January 4, 1815 in the United States during the War of 1812 in which New England's opposition to the war reached the point where secession from the United States was discussed...
. It demanded constitutional amendments to protect New England's interests against the West and the South. Secession talk was rife and the region might have threatened to secede from the Union if their demands were ignored, but the news of peace ended the movement.
The United States had faced near disaster in 1814, but the victories at the Battle of New Orleans
Battle of New Orleans
The Battle of New Orleans took place on January 8, 1815 and was the final major battle of the War of 1812. American forces, commanded by Major General Andrew Jackson, defeated an invading British Army intent on seizing New Orleans and the vast territory the United States had acquired with the...
and the Battle of Baltimore
Battle of Baltimore
The Battle of Baltimore was a combined sea/land battle fought between British and American forces in the War of 1812. It was one of the turning points of the war as American forces repulsed sea and land invasions of the busy port city of Baltimore, Maryland, and killed the commander of the invading...
and what seemed to be a successful fight against the United Kingdom increased national patriotism and helped to unite the United States into one nation. The best-known patriotic legacy of the war was The Star Spangled Banner. The words are by Francis Scott Key, who after the bombardment of Fort McHenry set them to the music of a British song, "To Anacreon in Heaven." In 1889 the U.S. Navy began using The Star Spangled Banner at flag-raising ceremonies, a practice copied by the army. In 1931, Congress made it the U.S. national anthem.
Although neither side came away from the war with a clear-cut victory, the American people saw the War of 1812 as evidence of the success of the democratic experiment. The war ushered in a period of American history that has frequently been called "the Era of Good Feelings
Era of Good Feelings
The Era of Good Feelings was a period in United States political history in which partisan bitterness abated. It lasted approximately from 1815 to 1825, during the administration of U.S...
," a time when, at least on the surface, most Americans felt unified behind a common purpose. The War of 1812 convinced the country that it could fend off any foreign threats and that its focus should be on expansion at home.
With the collapse of the Hartford Convention and news of the triumph at the Battle of New Orleans
Battle of New Orleans
The Battle of New Orleans took place on January 8, 1815 and was the final major battle of the War of 1812. American forces, commanded by Major General Andrew Jackson, defeated an invading British Army intent on seizing New Orleans and the vast territory the United States had acquired with the...
, Americans had cause for celebration. In February President James Madison
James Madison
James Madison, Jr. was an American statesman and political theorist. He was the fourth President of the United States and is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being the primary author of the United States Constitution and at first an opponent of, and then a key author of the United...
sent Congress the treaty of peace. He congratulated the nation on the close of a war "waged with the success which is the natural result of the wisdom of the legislative councils, of the patriotism of the people, of the public spirit of the militia, and of the valour of the military and naval forces of the country." The spirit of nationalism and pride led to the collapse of the nay-sayer Federalist Party and the new Era of Good Feelings
Era of Good Feelings
The Era of Good Feelings was a period in United States political history in which partisan bitterness abated. It lasted approximately from 1815 to 1825, during the administration of U.S...
.
One indirect result of the War of 1812 was the later election to the presidency of war heroes Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...
and of William Henry Harrison
William Henry Harrison
William Henry Harrison was the ninth President of the United States , an American military officer and politician, and the first president to die in office. He was 68 years, 23 days old when elected, the oldest president elected until Ronald Reagan in 1980, and last President to be born before the...
. Both of these men won military fame which had much to do with their elections. Another indirect result was the decline of Federalist power.
Impact on U.S. military
During the war a total of 2,260 American soldiers and sailors were killed. The war cost the United States about $200 million. Neither the United States nor Great Britain gained any military advantage. Indirectly the United States made some gains.A significant military development was the increased emphasis by General Winfield Scott
Winfield Scott
Winfield Scott was a United States Army general, and unsuccessful presidential candidate of the Whig Party in 1852....
on professionalism in the U.S. Army officer corps and in particular, the training of officers at the United States Military Academy
United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located at West Point, New York. The academy sits on scenic high ground overlooking the Hudson River, north of New York City...
("West Point"). This new professionalism would become apparent during the Mexican-American War (1846–1848). After the Texas Annexation
Texas Annexation
In 1845, United States of America annexed the Republic of Texas and admitted it to the Union as the 28th state. The U.S. thus inherited Texas's border dispute with Mexico; this quickly led to the Mexican-American War, during which the U.S. captured additional territory , extending the nation's...
by the U.S., the term Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny was the 19th century American belief that the United States was destined to expand across the continent. It was used by Democrat-Republicans in the 1840s to justify the war with Mexico; the concept was denounced by Whigs, and fell into disuse after the mid-19th century.Advocates of...
became a widely used political term for those who propagated American expansionism and military pride.
In a related development, the United States officially abandoned its reliance on the militia for its defense. Moreover, Army Corps of Engineers (which at that time controlled West Point), began building fortifications around New Orleans as a response to the British attack on the city during the war. This effort then grew into numerous civil river works, especially in the 1840s and 1850s under General Pierre Beauregard. The Corps remains the authority over Mississippi (and other) river works.
The embarrassing defeat of Fort Madison in what is now Iowa and Fort McKay in Prairie du Chien led to the fortification of the Mississippi, with the expansion of Fort Belle Fontaine near St. Louis, and the construction of Fort Armstrong
Fort Armstrong
Fort Armstrong , was one of a chain of western frontier defenses which the United States erected after the War of 1812. It was located at the foot of Rock Island, Illinois, in the Mississippi River between present-day Illinois and Iowa. It was five miles from the principal Sac and Fox village on...
(1816) and Fort Edwards (1816) in Illinois, Fort Crawford
Fort Crawford
Fort Crawford was an outpost of the United States Army located in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, during the 19th Century. The Second Fort Crawford Military Hospital was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1960....
(1816) in Prairie du Chien, and Fort Snelling (1819) in Minnesota. Removal of all Indians from the Mississippi Valley became a top priority for the U.S. government.
Economic impact
The War of 1812 gave a dramatic boost to the manufacturing capabilities of the United States. The British blockade of the American coast created a shortage of cotton cloth in the United States, leading to the creation of a cotton-manufacturing industry, beginning at Waltham, MassachusettsWaltham, Massachusetts
Waltham is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, was an early center for the labor movement, and major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, the city was a prototype for 19th century industrial city planning,...
by Francis Cabot Lowell. The war also spurred on construction of the Erie Canal
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal is a waterway in New York that runs about from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, at Lake Erie, completing a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. The canal contains 36 locks and encompasses a total elevation differential of...
project, which was built to promote commercial links yet was also perceived as having military uses should the need ever arise.
As the charter of the First Bank of the United States
First Bank of the United States
The First Bank of the United States is a National Historic Landmark located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania within Independence National Historical Park.-Banking History:...
had been allowed to expire in 1811, the federal government was ill-prepared to finance the war and resorted to such expediencies as the suspension of specie payment and the issuance of Treasury Notes. These actions set a precedent for future Federal responses to financial crises. Also, this exposure of the nation's financial weaknesses explained in part the Congressional decision to charter the Second Bank of the United States
Second Bank of the United States
The Second Bank of the United States was chartered in 1816, five years after the First Bank of the United States lost its own charter. The Second Bank of the United States was initially headquartered in Carpenters' Hall, Philadelphia, the same as the First Bank, and had branches throughout the...
in 1816. The readiness of Southern leaders especially John C. Calhoun
John C. Calhoun
John Caldwell Calhoun was a leading politician and political theorist from South Carolina during the first half of the 19th century. Calhoun eloquently spoke out on every issue of his day, but often changed positions. Calhoun began his political career as a nationalist, modernizer, and proponent...
to support such a measure also indicates a high degree of national feeling. Perhaps the clearest sign of a new sense of national unity was the victorious Democratic-Republican Party
Democratic-Republican Party (United States)
The Democratic-Republican Party or Republican Party was an American political party founded in the early 1790s by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Political scientists use the former name, while historians prefer the latter one; contemporaries generally called the party the "Republicans", along...
, its long-time foes the Federalists vanished from national politics. The result was an Era of Good Feelings
Era of Good Feelings
The Era of Good Feelings was a period in United States political history in which partisan bitterness abated. It lasted approximately from 1815 to 1825, during the administration of U.S...
with the lowest level of partisanship ever seen.
Canadians, however, contrasted their post-war economic stagnation to the booming American economy, which Desmond Morton believes led to the Rebellions of 1837
Rebellions of 1837
The Rebellions of 1837 were a pair of Canadian armed uprisings that occurred in 1837 and 1838 in response to frustrations in political reform. A key shared goal was the allowance of responsible government, which was eventually achieved in the incident's aftermath.-Rebellions:The rebellions started...
See also
- Chronology of the War of 1812Chronology of the War of 1812-Origins:-1812:-1813:-1814:-1815:-External links:********...
- Origins of the War of 1812Origins of the War of 1812The War of 1812, between the United States of America and the British Empire , and Britain's Indian allies, lasted from 1812 to 1815. It was fought chiefly on the Atlantic Ocean and on the land, coasts and waterways of North America.There were several immediate stated causes for the U.S...
- War of 1812War of 1812The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
- Treaty of GhentTreaty of GhentThe Treaty of Ghent , signed on 24 December 1814, in Ghent , was the peace treaty that ended the War of 1812 between the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
- Anglo-American Convention of 1818