Their were many things that added to the fire of this war. Such as the British attempts to restrict the trade of the US. Other factors where that the British's Royal Navy acts of taking American seamen and making them serve on the British side. During this time period the US repealed Thomas Jefferson's Embargo, since it banned trade with any other country, doing more harm then good for the US side. Then the Non-Intercourse Act went into place, and was later repealed for the same reason, except it banned trade with only Britain and France. Next the May 1810 bill became. It stated that if either France or Britain dropped trade restrictions against the US then the US would continue to ban trade with the other, but would open it for the open that dropped it. And when Napoleon hinted to the fact that he would drop the trade restrictions against the US they proceeded accordingly.
In the fall of the year 1811 the governor of Indiana, William Henry Harrison, led American troops to battle against some of the Native Americans in the Northwest territory, in the battle of Tippecanoe. This loss on the Natives side convinced many of them that in order to prevent Americans from taking their land they needed to get British support. The following year on June 18th President James Madison signed a declaration against Britain. And proceeded to attack Canada and then a British colony. Being severely underprepared they lost. But things started to look up when on September 1813, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry won the Battle of Lake Erie. This placed the Northwest territory in the command of America. Then following the pattern of success, William Henry Harrison took back control of Detroit during the battle of Thames. But soon Britain defeated Napoleon's armies in April 1814, turing their focus back to North America. On August 24, 1814 the British captured Washington D.C. and burnt down the capital, white house, and other government buildings. Then the next month on the 13th, Baltimore's Fort McHenry stood for twenty five hours with British fire upon it. This event also inspired our National Anthem, "The Star Spangled Banner" by Frankcis Scott Key. |
The War of 1812
Expansion had to start somewhere where. But see what happened when it first came to play.