American Neutrality

With that being said, the only way the British could get people to work in the Navy was by force, or impressment. At the first chance they could get, many of the sailors fled to American merchant ships. That caused the British Navy claim the right to stop and search any of those ships. During these searches, British sailors often impressed not only British deserters, but also American citizens. The breaking point of this conflict was the Chesapeake-Leopard incident. The Leopard, a British ship, opened fire on the Chesapeake when Commander Barron refused to allow the British sailors to search his ship. Commander James Barron surrendered and the sailors took four men from his ship. Back in America, word of the incident ignited a ravening hunger for revenge. Impressment was only one conflict the British started with the United States leading up to the War of

The War of 1812 was predominantly fought between the United States and the United Kingdom for a variety of complex reasons but most notably was caused by Britain’s inability to treat the newly-freed America as anything but a colonial body. Americans were overall outraged into war by their own government’s sanctioned trade embargoes, the impressments of seamen by the United Kingdom, and interpersonal negative sentiments that greatly restricted America’s trade with European nations (including the vital trade with Britain) and in effect: America’s economy. American leaders at this point slightly miscalculated the effort by deciding to invade Canada as the only viable way to properly attack Great Britain; this created an aggressive beginning on America’s part in this obscure war. The Treaty of Ghent ended the conflict in 1815 and said nothing about the major issues that caused the war and did not conclude in a victory for either side; it called for the return of preceding conditions before the war and did little to nothing to solve the tensions between these two major nations: the United States and the United Kingdom. So how did Americans feel about this unclear war? The War of 1812 is America’s most unpopular war as it is largely forgotten in our history. The New Englanders specifically opposed the war, with some Republicans lending a hand in the anti-war effort. At this time New England was politically dominated by the

One cause of the War of 1812 was Britain’s impressment of American soldiers and incapability to acknowledge American neutrality rights. Impressment was the act of Britain’s Royal Navy of sending officers to U.S. ships, inspecting the crew, and seizing sailors who were accused of being escapees from British ships. The British used impressment because the Royal Navy was on a war footing and need all the sailors it could obtain. Impressment was more commonly known as “press gangs” and was regularly recruitment by force. Between 1803 and 1812, around 6,000

For many years Great Britain and France violated the United States’ neutral shipping rights by confiscating American ships and impressing American sailors. Impressment was the practice of removing sailors and requiring them to serve the Royal Navy by force. The Chesapeake incident on June 22, 1807 made America realize something had to be done. The HMS Leopard, an English naval vessel, requested permission to board the Chesapeake, a smaller American naval vessel, to search the sailors for Royal Navy. The commander of the Chesapeake denied permission to the HMS Leopard, at which point the HMS Leopard opened fire on the Chesapeake resulting in killing three, injuring eighteen and impressing four American soldiers. Because of this incident U.S President Thomas Jefferson, announce the Embargo Act.

The harm of trading rights and citizens were one major cause of the War of 1812. Great Britain was known to have been interfering with U.S rights to use the sea. “Great Britain, in defiance of this incontestable right, captures every American vessel bound to, or returning from, a port where her commerce is not favored; enslaves our seamen, and in spite of our, perseveres in these aggressions.” (Document 1) The Americans feared that they would lose all their trading rights to Great Britain. If the American leaders did not do something soon, then Great Britain would take over American trading ports. “… Which shall we do, abandon or defend our own commercial and maritime rights, and the personal liberties of our own citizens employed in exercising them? These rights are essentially attacked, and war is the only means of redress.” (Document 2) For Americans to regain their freedom of trading they had to declare the War of 1812.

The United States in 1812 claimed to be a neutral nation that would trade between France and Great Britain. Although this seemed to be a good idea at first, tensions grew rapidly because the French and British had bad relations, and the British weren't happy that we were trading with the French. The British in 1812 began seizing ships from the United States in which they stole goods the United States was trading with their opposing enemy, the French, as well as seizing American sailors. The sailors that were captured by the British were forced into doing labor for their navy and if they refused to follow their strict stipulations they would be thrown overboard. Due to the impressment of

Britain was a major obstruction in regard to the trade between America and other nations. Due to the seizing of American ships, the U.S. felt that it was the proper time to declare war on Britain. This signalled a British instigation of the U.S. in order to

The British were stealing and interfering with American trading rights. They would steal the American vessels from their destined ports and steer them to British ports instead. This occurred because the British did not like that their commerce was not favored during the trading. Along with capturing the vessels, they would also capture the seamen, merchants, and sailors on board of the vessel. They would enslave the seamen.

As Hickey states, “its government issued a series of decrees that restricted U.S. trade with France and the rest of Europe. At the same time, the Royal Navy stepped up its practice of impressment: forcibly taking sailors from American merchant vessels to serve on its own undermanned warships…They were subjugated to all the harsh discipline,

This caused tremendous tension in the United States, who was trying to maintain neutrality but relied on the trade economy with both nations, their allies, and their colonies. President Jefferson tried to force the European powers to reconsider by convincing Congress to enact the Embargo Act, “which forbade any ship of the United States to sail from a U.S. port for any foreign port.” Jefferson hoped that by denying them of U.S. made goods they would be open to negotiation since the U.S. was the “largest consumer of British manufactures” and “the world’s largest neutral carrier”. The major drawback was that this starved the American economy, which thrived on foreign trade. This brought the threat

With the Impressment, the USS Chesapeake incident, and the Embargo Act, these events were causes that kept leading up to the war of 1812. There were many events and situations after the Revolutionary War involving the British, so many Americans came to conclude that going into another war against Britain might not be a terrible idea. With the Impressment, the British were capturing men and forcing them into naval service. The USS Chesapeake incident was because of the British ship Leopard stopping the Is Navy ship and trying to take all there sailors and the British started open firing when the captain wouldn't let them. During the continuance of the Embargo Act, all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States confined to the navigation of bays, sounds, rivers, and lakes. According to all of these documents it states that the British were involved negatively in all of them against the Americans.

The Americans struggled a lot go gain their independence from their mother country England. They felt like they were still under England’s control even though they were in America. They believed that if they were in America they could establish things that they wanted which was to create their own type of government. They didn’t wish to be in control of England anymore which resulted in two wars. These wars were the American revolution and the War of 1812 in which the Americans were victorious.

America may have gained independence from Great Britain in 1776, but they were still having complications with them in the early 1800s. The problems’ solution resulted in the War of 1812. There were many different causes and effects to this war on a few nations. America declared war on Great Britain for many reasons.

Twenty-nine years after the signing of the Treaty of Paris of 1783, which ended the Revolutionary War between America and Britain, was the year that marked the beginning of a new conflict that would last America the next three years, the War of 1812. On June 16th of that year, President James Madison declared the start of a war that would greatly impact the future of our country. Britain, still one of the world's greatest superpowers, was currently warring with France at the time of the declaration, however, Britain's reputation as a formidable opponent stood strong. The War of 1812 held a great significance in the history of America: Reasonable purposes for conflict, major conflict with Native Americans, great controversy among its supporters and opposers, numerous honorable battles, the inclusion of African Americans in the war, a memorable conclusion, and notable results.

There were actually multiple reasons. Britain often would seize American ships and say that specific sailors were actually “British deserters,” who they would make serve on their own ships. Also, they captured cargoes to prevent the them from falling into French hands, and they didn’t pay attention to American protests.