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Essay about The War of 1812

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On June 18, 1812, the United States declared war on England. The war lasted 2 years and 8 months and it killed up to 15,000 people. By 24 December, 1814, The Treaty of Ghent was signed and it was ratified by Parliament on 30 December 1814. By February 1815, The Treaty of Ghent was ratified by United States and it ended the war. There were various issues happened before the war and some of them were major causes.
Before 1805, it was a chaos in Europe. Britain was at war with France. For years, the wars had seen France lose most of its colonial empire. The Louisiana Territory was sold to United States of America and France was kicked out of North America. Also British threatened France to establish any colony outside Europe. Britain had the …show more content…

So, as a result, the British began seizing American merchants who were trading with the West Indies and took the ships and their cargoes as a prize and enforcing impressment on their crews. This was just the impressment from merchant ships. They also impressed deserters from the Navy. The Chesapeake-Leopard Affair was an example happened at the coast of Virginia in 1807. Four sailors were removed from the American vessel and were tried for desertion, one of them was subsequently hanged. The actual number of Americans who were impressed into service in the Royal Navy is numerous, but unknown. However, it is estimated that a thousand American sailor or merchants per year were illegally pressed into British service. They need these sailors. Horsman pointed out that after the war against Napoleon, Britain was in shortage of sailors and it led to the impressment for them to increase their own seamen. This issue gained national attention, bringing the United States to the brink of war. The war between France and Britain raged in the Caribbean so the United States could not just stand and watch. Thomas Jefferson proposed Embargo Act and the Congress passed it in December 1807. It prohibited trade with a foreign country or countries usually for exerting economic pressure. However, he had seriously miscalculated. France

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