War of 1812 (1812–15)

Origins of the Conflict

In 1783, few European countries, particularly Great Britain, welcomed an independent United States into the community of nations. The outbreak of war between Great Britain and France in 1793 further strained U.S.—European relations. Not only did British troops occupy posts in the Old Northwest until 1796, but both France and England began interfering with American shipping in the Atlantic to prevent the other from gaining an economic advantage from the overseas trade. By 1807, the

British were stopping American ships on the high seas and impressing sailors into the Royal Navy. While some impressed sailors were in fact deserters from the Royal Navy, others were British-born, naturalized American citizens, a status ignored by Great Britain. Both Britain and France also enacted naval blockades that hurt American overseas shipping interests.

Having exhausted diplomatic solutions, Pres. Thomas Jefferson announced an embargo that confined American vessels to their ports. When the embargo crippled the American economy, Jefferson reopened trade with all nations but Great Britain and France. Jefferson's successor, James Madison, offered a trade monopoly to the first nation that would stop interfering with American trade. Napoleon Bonaparte seemingly promised an end to French aggression contingent upon an end to the British blockade. Madison, hoping to pressure the British, took advantage of the French offer and imposed nonimportation against Great Britain in November 1810.

In addition to free trade and sailors' rights, frontier troubles appeared to give the United States a causus belli. Since 1783, American settlers in the Northwest clashed repeatedly with Indians of the region. In 1808, the Shawnee chief Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa, “The Prophet,” began unifying western tribes to prevent further American expansion. Blaming the British for increased Indian activity, Indiana Territory Gov. William Henry Harrison led an army to Prophet's Town, Tecumseh's capital, defeating the Shawnee at the November 7, 1811 battle of Tippecanoe. Demoralized, Tecumseh and his followers looked to the British for aid and support, increasing American calls for war against Canada.

“Mr. Madison's War”

By 1812, western and southern Republicans concluded that war was necessary to protect American neutral rights and stop impressment. Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and the “War Hawks” also argued that the western frontier should be defended. Federalists, concentrated in New England in and the northern mid-Atlantic region, opposed the war, fearing continued commercial losses. Less bellicose Republicans argued that the absence of a stable banking system (as the charter for the First Bank of the United States had expired in 1811), limited tariffs, and inadequate trade revenues, combined with the poor state of the armed forces, left the [Page 905]nation economically unprepared for a conflict. The Army numbered a mere 6,700 poorly trained men, commanded by aging officers. The Navy was well trained and commanded, but it had only 16 vessels with which to challenge a numerically superior Royal Navy. Congress debated Madison's call for a declaration of war against Great Britain, narrowly approving it for presidential signature on June 18, 1812, unaware that the British Parliament had repealed the provisions the United States found offensive only two days earlier.

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