The Second War for American Independence
The title of this essay is the name attributed by some historians and others to the conflict between the United States and Britain and their (Canadian) Indian allies. The background to this almost three-year war (1812-1815), had been various actions by Britain or British interests that had caused growing provocation and annoyance in America, culminating in the fourth American President, James Madison, declaring war on Britain on June 18th 1812. According to Kelly (n.d.) in his article “American History Timeline - War of 1812”, these were some of the events leading up to that declaration of war:
1803-1812: The British forced circa 10,000 Americans to work aboard British vessels;
1806: British blockaded France and seized 1000 US ships caught in the middle;
According to Kelly, this war was also called by some “Mr Madison’s war” or “The Second American Revolution”. However, I believe that to give it the name “The Second War for American Independence” as per the title of this essay, is misleading, therefore I cannot support that name. Although the name contained an element of truth in terms of the effects of the eventual peace treaty that was signed (see later), the war was really a case of one nation (America) declaring war on another nation (Britain) over perceived affronts and hostile acts against America and/or its citizens.
As mentioned above, the war lasted almost three years, during which time the Americans made three failed attempts to invade Canada, the British burned Washington DC including the White House, forcing Madison to flee, and finally in January 1815, (after the war had officially ended – but unbeknown to the combatants) the Americans defeated the British at the Battle of New Orleans, inflicting 700 British losses for only 8 US soldiers killed.
In the meantime, in what is now the country of Belgium, British and American diplomats signed the Treaty of Ghent on December 24th 1814, as described by Taylor (n.d.) in his article “Summary of the End of the War of 1812”. Taylor states that because all parties wanted badly to reach agreement “no mention was made of the problems that had originally caused friction between the two nations”. The treaty was ratified in February 1815. According to an article “Terms Of The Treaty Of Ghent” on the HistoryKing website, the terms of it were essentially that all prisoners were exchanged, all properties and ships returned, and all pre-war boundaries were restored (involving returning almost 10 million acres to America, and present-day Ontario back to British control). Finally, America was given fishing rights in the Gulf of St Lawrence.
But perhaps the more significant outcome of the war was one not actually written into the treaty. Taylor recounts that American peoples now felt more united as a nation and proud of their combined efforts during the war. Although not realized then, this war had been an early step in the process of uniting the various North American provinces, and an important stage in the creation of modern Canada. Although the native Indians were ultimately losers in the conflict, having never regained their lands since, the war did undoubtedly create a greater feeling of national unity in America, and that having ended Britain’s erstwhile interference in American affairs, it really had been – in their eyes – a “Second War of Independence”.
References:
Kelly, Martin. (n.d.). “War of 1812: American History Timeline - War of 1812”. About.com American History. http://americanhistory.about.com/od/warof1812/a/war-of-1812-timeline.htm
Taylor, R. (n.d.). “Summary of the End of the War of 1812”. The War of 1812 Website. http://www.warof1812.ca/summary.html
“Terms Of The Treaty Of Ghent”. The HistoryKing.com website. http://www.historyking.com/American-History/timeline/1803-1849/treaty-of-ghent/Terms-Of-The-Treaty-Of-Ghent.html
