What Are The Attitudes To The War Of 1812 Dbq

The war of 1812 was caused by several different reasoning’s. First, Britain was at war with France. However, Britain did not want the United States to provide France with food and supplies. This would lead to Britain setting up a particle blockade. Second, between the years of 1802 and 1803 the British had captured (kidnapped) about 6,000 American sailors forcing them to work on British ships. Third, many of the American settlers believed that the British were stirring up the Native resistance to limit settlement. Finally, members of congress like Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun had started to sire up about the ideal of war. This was based off of their resentment towards British violation of maritime rights and Britain’s encouragement of Native American hostility against American expansion in the West.

The war in Europe dominated James Madison's Presidency. The previous policy of the Embargo Act had failed, and Madison repealed it with the Non-Intercourse Act, which allowed trade with any country except the belligerents. When this became unenforceable, the Macon Bill, stating that the United could trade with any country agreeing to respect US neutrality, replaced it. Napoleon agreed to this stipulation, the British refused, so the United States began trading with France but not with Great Britain. This led to increased tension with the British, manifested both in the continued impressment of American sailors by the British and an increasingly hostile Indian population in the Northwest supposedly incited by the British.

The War of 1812 had a strange lack of victors, but to fully comprehend its effects, one must first evaluate the causes of the war. Each nation involved in the war had a very specific set of goals they wished to accomplish. Initially, the United States aimed to stay neutral in the affairs of Britain and France during the Napoleonic Wars until the two rivals attempted to restrict American trade. In an effort to combat this, President Jefferson passed the Embargo Act of 1807, which banned trade with all foreign countries. The act, intending to deprive the world of American trade, backfired and was later replaced with the Non-Intercourse Act to instead ban trade with only Britain and France. America's unwillingness to trade with the two caused tension that was intensified by the British policy of impressment.2 The resulting “anti-British sentiment” was greatly encouraged by the War Hawks, a group led by Henry Clay that supported war with Britain. They ardently pursued the end of impressment due to the Chesapeake-Leopard Incident in which the HMS Leopard boarded the USS Chesapeake, took four prisoners, and executed one thinking that they were British deserters. Once discovering that they were not, Britain returned the

To understand the War of 1812 we have to look at the Napoleonic Wars for it was during this time that both Great Britain and France began to harass American trade ships. The United States attempted to remain neutral; they wanted to have peaceful trade with both countries but France and Great Britain began to restrict American

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.

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,

Since America was developing as a new nation, it was neutral. Great Britain cut off America’s trading because they thought it would interfere with their war against France. They also restricted trading because they wanted to set up an Indian population in the Midwest in order to still maintain their influence. The trade restriction was the first major cause of the War of 1812. During America’s neutral status, the British began to impress Americans, taking about 6,000 mariners and making them serve on the British ships.

The War of 1812 was a war between the United States and Great Britain after the American Revolution that happened in 1765 to 1783. The Treaty of Paris officially marked the end of the American Revolution. It represented the freedom of the 13 colonies and it also established the boundaries of the United States and Great Britain. The british agreed to stop interfering with the United States all together but did not uphold their promise and continued to interfere with America's shipping and trading route. That was the main causes of the War of 1812 because even though the british on June 16th, 1812 promised to stop interfering James Madison, who was President of the United States thought that the only way for Great Britain to truly stop was to go to war. Many legislators in Congress who represented rural areas voted for war and that was the first time that Congress declared war. The other causes of the war of 1812 were, that the British were practicing impressment of U.S. seamen and forcing them in the navy or the military to serve for Great Britain. The British also encouraged Native Americans to attack the U.S. as they tried to expand west and gain more territory.

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 younger generation of politicians were called War Hawks. At the time the president was James Madison and the War Hawks often pressured him to declare wars against the British. In June of 1812, Madison issued his declaration of war to England. This took into effect for the reason that the Americans wanted to get the British people out of their lands and to have control of their ships again so they could have free

This war was primarily military conflict between Europe, America, and the United kingdom. The United States declared war on June 18th 1812 for many reasons. 1 of these reasons was trade restrictions that was brought out by the British war with France. The British were in favor of Indian tribes, so that American expansion wouldn’t rapidly grow as fast. Insults between country officials were made and this became an outrage, words were used and people and countries were humiliated.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Great Britain was locked in a long and bitter battle with Napoleon Bonaparte’s France. In an effort to cut off supplies from reaching the enemy, both sides sought to bar the United States from trading with the other. In 1807, Britain passed the Orders

Madison and these supporters of the war looked upon it as being inevitable, causing it to eventually also be known as “Mr. Madison’s War”. Madison was influenced to believe this war was unavoidable as a cause of the British supplying already aggressive Native Americans with weapons, along with members of his party urging the idea of kicking the Indians out of the United States and putting them in Canada. While individuals like this saw the war as inevitable others, such as southerner expansionists, had ulterior motives. These expansionists sought the state of Florida, which at the time was controlled by Spain, a weak ally of Britain. Even with multiple stances on the topic of war and individuals having ulterior motives, what started the entire discussion of war was all the different unjust actions of the British towards the United States. The British were consistently impressing American sailors, taking the Americans from their vessel and forcing them to join and work for the British Navy. Along with impressment occurring there were many more reasons behind the War of 1812; such as, harassment of United States trade by British naval ships, and “During the first three decades of American independence there was a general feeling that the British government had very little respect for the young United States. And during the Napoleonic Wars the British government actively sought to meddle with — or completely suppress — American trade with European nations.” (McNamara). Britain was so desperate in attempting to squash the United States through trade they even passed laws, known as Orders in Council, which meant for all American ships that were headed towards a European port a blockade would now be there.

American exports declined by 75% and imports declined by 50%. Cotton growers in the South lost their British market and merchants in New England suffered. In 1809, the Embargo Act was repealed and in replacement, the Non-Intercourse Act was passed. It prohibited trade with Britain and France. The act failed to make Britain and France respect America and had a still had a negative effect on American trade as well. In 1810, it was replaced by Macon’s Bill No. 2 which stated that America would trade with whoever dropped the non-trade act first and would not trade with the other country. Although Napoleon proclaimed that he would cease interference with American trade, the French were still attacking the American ships. Even though the French were not sticking to their word, America’s biggest threat and concern was Britain. In the fall of 1811, the War Hawks in congress demanded war against Britain. They claimed that Britain was providing aid to the Native Americans to attack the Americans on the western frontier. On June 18, 1812, Madison signed a declaration of war against

However, questionable congressional votes for war came from surprising parts of the country. Regions like New York and New England who, suffered the most from British attacks on U.S. shipping voted against entering into war. While the motives may seem perplexing, farming regions suffered the most damage due to their crop market failing prosper. Maritime states took advantage and smuggled what was needed in spite of British restrictions, if war were to break out any smuggling operations would be put to an abrupt halt. Other entities for sectional voting were the American desire for territory in British Canada and Spanish Florida, western land hunger, and frontier Indian attacks that were blamed on the British. Indians had to continuously sign treaties that they did not understand due to the pressure of opening new lands, which caused resentment among tribes that lost more of their land due to Americans. Tecumseh, a powerful Shawnee leader, recognized that disunity among the tribes led to consequences, so he arranged to form a confederation that would protect Indian hunting grounds. The declarations he made were full of contempt as he declared the white race as being a “wicked race” (248) and the only way to be rid of them was “upon a trail of blood”. However, General William Henry Harrison governor of the Indian tribes caught wind of Tecumseh’s