War of 1812

Causes of War

  • Second Hundred Years’ War (1689-1815) –revisionist description of repeated conflicts between Britain and France during the long 18th-century
  • Orders in Council –royal decrees issued by the Privy Council (King’s advisors) directing economic warfare against France (and indirectly against neutrals such as the United States) by limiting commercial trade
  • Impressment –Royal Navy practice of boarding merchant ships seeking deserters; an estimated 10,000 Americans seamen endured impressment during Napoleonic conflicts
  • Western expansion –Jefferson’s continued to pursue “an empire of liberty” with Louisiana Purchase (1803), pursuit of West Florida (1804), and Battle of Tippecanoe (1811)

Impressment

Canadian Campaign (1812-13)

  • Jefferson said it would be “a mere matter of marching”
  • US population = nearly 8 million // British Canada = 500,000
  • Importance of Tecumseh and Battle of Thames (1813)
  • Gen. William Henry Harrison was victor at both Tippecanoe and Thames

Map

British Invasion (1814)

  • Napoleon abdicates and exiled to Elba
  • August 1814 the British burn Washington’s public buildings
  • Dolley Madison and Paul Jennings save artifacts from White House
  • British invasion stalls outside of Baltimore at Ft. McHenry
  • “Star Spangled Banner” by Francis Scott Key

Toward Peace and Aftermath

  • Negotiations for Treaty of Ghent start in August 1814; Orders-in-Council no longer in effect; Americans no longer objecting to impressment; questions revolve around Indian and territorial issues
  • Congress of Vienna meeting simultaneously to settle European affairs
  • In war’s final engagement, Andrew Jackson secures overwhelming victory at Battle of New Orleans in January 1815

Andrew Jackson

Coffin handbill