The War of 1812
By: Shelby Wright
What are the causes leading to the War of 1812?
The three causes leading up to the war are impressment, Americans wanting more land, and the war-hungry War Hawks.
The impressment was a huge issue. Impressment is the act in which people are captured and used as "slaves" or "crew" for that capturing ship. The British were capturing the Americans for naval men while searching for escaping British naval men, who fled to American Trading Ships. I believe that this was the main reason for this war, even though we did not address this in the treaty ending the war, but it did fade after a while.
America is a young country. Just coming back from the Revolution, separating from Britain. The Americans were land-hungry. They wanted more and more land, taking it from the Native Americans. They are starting to want Canada as well, even though they just got the Louisiana Purchase. The Americans have just doubled the size of their country, and they are still wanting more. This caused problems with the Native Americans and British. Americans were migrating into the West, pushing the Native Americans further west and now they want part of British territory as well.
After winning the Revolution and the French and Indian War, the patriotism is off the charts. Americans think they are the greatest country because they beat the super power country of Britain. They think they are unstoppable. These are called the War Hawks. This group of people are men and woman who think that we can go to war with Britain again and come back as we did in the Revolution. Obviously, we can't because we just got back from war. We had little supplies left and a lot of debt.
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was truly a great man. He saved us from total defeat and made our country a recognized country instead of the country who came from Britain.
Andrew Jackson was the commander of the militia when they went down to New Orleans because word of the Treaty of Ghent hadn't gotten back to America. He pushed through Britain's forces with only a quarter of the men that Britain had. Andrew was the star hero of this war, even technically after the war ended.
The British wanted control over the Mississippi River, and taking over New Orleans would do this. The mouth of the Mississippi was at this location, and a key trading port for America. This was where we got most of our trading revenue. Andrew Jackson saved the invasion from taking over the port and saved a lot of people lives since most people get their money to feed and care for their families.
Effects of the War
The effects of the War of 1812 were the it increased American patriotism, weakened Native American resistance, and the U.S. manufacturing grew.
The war definitely raised spirits. The Americans thought more of that their country was the greatest and less of the bad things that happened during the war. The War Hawks sure thought we were unstoppable and the best.
Native Americans paired up with the British and lost, with this the Native Americans couldn't hold us back when we pushed them further west until they were totally pushed to the coast. They didn't have the energy, resources, or power to stop this bombarding group of settlers from coming on their land. They still picked off a few of them, but couldn't stop all of them.
After the war, we cut off connections with Britain for a little bit. That means we can't rely on Britain for the manufactured goods, so we started making our own manufactured goods. The manufacturing business grew ten-fold and didn't stop that train. It was the biggest boom in manufacturing at the time.