Origins of the War of 1812

The origins of the War of 1812 (1812-1815), between the United States and the British Empire and its First Nation allies, have been long debated. The War of 1812 was caused by multiple factors and ultimately led to the US declaration of war on Britain:^[1]

• A series of trade restrictions introduced by Britain to impede American trade with France with which Britain was at war (the US contested the restrictions as illegal under international law).^[2]
• The impressment (forced recruitment) of seamen on US vessels into the Royal Navy (the British claimed that they were British deserters).
• The British military support for American Indians who were offering armed resistance to the expansion of the American frontier to the Northwest Territory.
• A possible desire by the US to annex some or all of Canada.^[3]
• Implicit but powerful was a US motivation and desire to uphold national honor in the face of what they considered to be British insults, such as the Chesapeake affair.^[4]

American expansion into the Northwest Territory (now Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and northeast Minnesota) was impeded by Indian raids. Some historians maintain that an American goal in the war was to annex some or all of Canada, a view that many Canadians still share. However, many argue that inducing the fear of such a seizure was merely an American tactic, which was designed to obtain a bargaining chip.^[5]

Some members of the British Parliament^[6] and dissident American politicians such as John Randolph of Roanoke^[7] claimed that American expansionism, rather than maritime disputes, was the primary motivation for the American declaration of war. That view has been retained by some historians.^[8]

Although the British made some concessions before the war on neutral trade, they insisted on the right to reclaim their deserting sailors. The British also had long had a goal to create a large "neutral" Indian state that would cover much of Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. They made the demand as late as 1814 at the Ghent Peace Conference but had lost battles that would have validated those claims.^[9][10]

The war was fought in four theatres: on the oceans, where the warships and privateers of both sides preyed on each other's merchant shipping; along the Atlantic Coast of the US, which was blockaded with increasing severity by the British, who also mounted large-scale raids in the later stages of the war; on the long frontier, running along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River, which separated the US from Upper Canada and Lower Canada (now Ontario and Quebec); and along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

During the war, both Americans and British launched invasions of each other's territory, all of which either failed or gained only temporary success. At the end of the war, the British held American territory in parts of Maine and some outposts in the sparsely-populated West, and the Americans held Canadian territory near Detroit. However, all territories that were occupied by either side were restored at the peace treaty to the prewar borders.

In the United States, battles such as New Orleans and Baltimore, the latter of which inspired the lyrics of the US national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, produced a sense of euphoria over a Second War of Independence against Britain and ushered in an Era of Good Feelings. The partisan animosity that had once verged on treason practically vanished.

Canada also emerged from the war with a heightened sense of national feeling and solidarity against the American invasion.

Britain, which had regarded the war as a sideshow to the Napoleonic Wars, which had raged in Europe, was less affected by the fighting, and its government and people welcomed an era of peaceful relations with the US.