Introduction
The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies is a book by Alan Taylor that takes us through the events of the civil war of 1812. This literature gives comprehensive coverage of events of the civil war and therefore, making it easier for people to picture what happens. It was a war between the Indians, Canadians, Britons and Americans. The battle was for a portion of land that belonged to Canadians born in United States. The war took a different shape as parties collaborated to facilitate the needed victory. It was a defining moment for the different nations, which ultimately shaped both their geographical and economic landscape (Taylor, 2010). The Ontario, Canadian border was a small section that could not definitely be divided among the fighting parties, even if this were to be possible, no party was willing to have it divided. It was an opportunity for the different groups to display their ability and strength. As always, in every battle there has to be a winner, the British and Americas won while the Indians failed terribly
Summary
The author takes us through the period preceding the civil war and the prevailing tensions among the nations. He has been carefully in building his plot for the main purpose of making his readers understand the message. He briefly describes the relationships that existed between Indians, Canadians, Americans and Britons and why they targeted Ontario of all the other places. The author also mentions about many other efforts by conflicting parties to acquire the portion diplomatically, failure of which prompted them to wage war. Looking at the period when the wars were fought, it goes without saying that every party thought they had all they needed to acquire the land. The issue of superiority and the need to prove their military supremacy made them choose guns over talks. Probably, if they knew what they were birthing, they would have chose other alternative measures, but as it remained, the mess had already been done and they had to face the consequences.
Britons were not major parties in the war; this is considering the colonial fame they had already acquired by being both Indian and American colonies. They however became part of it after realizing how much they would benefit from the land. Canadians were only left with the French who were their colonies (Taylor, 2010). The Britons had the Indians and Americans to defend. As the battle grew tougher, the importance of unity was realized. The Britons had to decide between the Indians and Americans, which ultimately determined the outcome of the war. the Indians were stripped off the fame they had acquired when the Britons turned against them and helped Americans win. The end-result was that the Americans and Britons conquered the land and acquired it, leaving the Indians with nothing to benefit from but shame and embarrassment.
Apart from the results where the two parties celebrated their victories, other consequences were awaiting them. The victory was only over the acquisition of the land; however, counting the losses and what took the countries in acquiring such victories were a series of discomfort and mourning (Taylor, 2010). It should be noted that the civil wars happened when most of the people and especially the soldiers had little information of what it meant to be in a war front. Most of the, were not trained and therefore risking their lives for the sake of a nations’ ego. In fact, most of such soldiers did not live to enjoy the victory they had facilitated. It was even worse for the losers, who not only lost the land but also lost lives. This period made nations realize that they were independent entities who needed to be prepared from external invasion. The civil wars transformed the cultural perspective of Canadians and Indians who purposed to be more vigilant in retaining and maintaining their cultural values.
Conclusion
Alan Taylor’s book gives us a summary of what it takes and feels to be on the war font. There are many issues taken for granted such as how civilians survived during the war and the fact that most of the citizens funding the war had no clear clue of what was happening. Soldiers who were taken to fight were inexperienced young men who were not requested to fight but commanded. It is however, unfortunate that after shedding their blood and losing body parts and even lives, they were not recognized nor their families assisted to recover. It was a war for political leaders rather than for the people. The economy of the participating nations were at stake and the war worsened the situation, this took quite sometime for them to recover which was followed by deaths caused by plagues and malnutrition. As the governments celebrated the victory, there were people morning the loss of their dear ones and going through a series of huger and starvation. I will definitely recommend this book to anyone concerned about the history of civil wars.
References
Taylor, A. (2010). The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, &
Indian Allies. New York: Vintage Books.
