The War of 1812
The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States declared war on Britain on 18 June 1812. Although peace terms were agreed upon in the December 1814 Treaty of Ghent, the war did not officially end until the peace treaty was ratified by the United States Congress on 17 February 1815.
Background
In 1807, these tensions escalated after the Royal Navy began enforcing tighter restrictions on American trade with France and impressedsailors who were originally British subjects, even those who had acquired American citizenship. Opinion in the U.S. was split on how to respond, and although majorities in both the House and Senate voted for war in June 1812, they were divided along strict party lines, with the Democratic-Republican Party in favour and the Federalist Party against.News of British concessions made in an attempt to avoid war did not reach the U.S. until late July, by which time the conflict was already underway.
Tecumseh’s confederacy
Anglo-American tensions also stemmed from long-standing differences over territorial expansion in North America and British support for Tecumseh’s confederacy, an Indian uprising which resisted U.S. colonial settlement in the Old Northwest.
Tecumseh’s confederacy was a confederation of Indigenous people in the Great Lakes region which formed during the early 19th century around the teaching of Shawnee leader Tenskwatawa.
The confederation grew over several years and came to include several thousand Native American warriors. Shawnee leader Tecumseh, the brother of Tenskwatawa, became the leader of the confederation as early as 1808. Together, they worked to unite the various tribes against colonizers from the United States whohad been crossing the Appalachian Mountains and occupying their traditional homelands.
In November 1811, a US Army force under the leadership of William Henry Harrison engaged Native American warriors associated with Tenskwatawa in the Battle of Tippecanoe, defeating them and engaging in several acts of destruction. In retaliation for that battle, Tecumseh led the confederation, allied with the British Empire, to war with the United States during a conflict later named Tecumseh’s War, part of the War of 1812. However, the confederation fractured in 1813 following his death at the Battle of the Thames.
Overall, Tecumseh’s confederacy played a role in causing the War of 1812, and in early operations in the west. In August 1812, Tecumseh’s warriors assisted a small force of 700 British regulars and Canadian militia in forcing the surrender of 2,500 American soldiers at the siege of Detroit. General William Hull, fearing a massacre, surrendered Fort Detroit without a fight to Major General Isaac Brock, who had engaged Tecumseh and his warriors as allies.
Tecumseh’s frontier war forced the Americans into rearguard actions, which divided their forces and prevented them from concentrating large enough numbers to successfully invade and occupy the strategically important area of Lower Canada (Quebec).
In 1813, the US Navy gained control of Lake Erie. The British and Tecumseh abandoned Detroit and retreated east, where they were caught and destroyed as a military force. Tecumseh was killed in the Battle of the Thames near Chatham, Ontario. The small British force was rapidly routed, leaving Tecumseh’s 500 warriors (who refused to retreat further) to face a significantly superior American force, which included cavalry. The death of Tecumseh had a demoralizing effect on his allies and his confederacy dissolved as an organized entity soon after, although many tribes continued to fight under their own leaders, as they had before Tecumseh’s death.After Tecumseh’s death in 1813, his younger brother Tenskwatawa retained a small group of followers, but had no significant leadership position among the American Indians in the subsequent decade. In 1824, at the request of Lewis Cass, the governor of Michigan Territory, the aging Tenskwatawa returned to the United States from Canada to assist the federal government with its plans for the Shawnee removal west of the Mississippi River.
End of the War
At sea, the Royal Navy imposed an effective blockade on U.S. maritime trade, while between 1812 and 1814 British regulars and colonial militia defeated a series of American invasions in Upper Canada.The April 1814 abdication of Napoleon allowed the British to send additional forces to North America and reinforce the Royal Navy blockade, crippling the American economy.
In August 1814, British troops captured Washington, before American victories at Baltimore and Plattsburgh in September ended fighting in the north. In the Southeastern United States, American forces and Indian allies defeated an anti-American faction of the Muscogee.
In August 1814, negotiations began in Ghent, with both sides wanting peace; the British economy had been severely impacted by the trade embargo, while the Federalists convened the Hartford Convention in December to formalize their opposition to the war.
The Treaty of Ghent was signed in December 1814, though it would be February before word reached the United States and the treaty was fully ratified. In the interim, American troops led by Andrew Jacksonrepulsed a major British attack on New Orleans.
About 35,000 died as a result of the war including about 15000 Indians.
Content courtesy Wikipedia
Destination: United States
