War Of 1812 Essay Research Paper War — страница 2

frontier in a conflict with the Creek people, who were eventually defeated by forces under Andrew Jackson at the battle of Horseshoe Bend (March 1814). Furthermore, despite victories of single American warships in the Atlantic, such as that of the Constitution over the Guerri?re in 1812, the Royal Navy by 1813 had blockaded much of the eastern coast and thus ruined U.S. trade with foreign nations.By 1814 American forces had improved in quality and leadership. In July armies under Jacob Brown and Winfield Scott fought British troops on even terms at Chippewa and Lundy’s Lane, near Niagara. Napoleon’s defeat in Europe, however, freed Britain to send more troops to North America. By late summer the United States had to face invasions from combined army and naval forces at Lake

Champlain and in Chesapeake Bay. A U.S. naval victory on Lake Champlain in September 1814 compelled one invading army to retreat to Canada, but not before other British troops had burned Washington, D.C., in August and also occupied northeastern Maine. British forces, however, failed to take Baltimore, Maryland. During the bombardment of the city (September 13-14), American poet Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner;” his verses later became the U.S. national anthem.Conclusion Great Britain and the United States agreed to commence peace negotiations in January 1814, but the talks were delayed until July. Both nations began negotiations with unrealistic demands. The United States wanted an end to all objectionable British maritime practices and also demanded

cessions of Canadian territory. Britain sought a neutral Native American buffer state in the American Northwest and wanted to revise both the American-Canadian boundary and the 1783 Treaty of Paris that had established U.S. independence. They finally agreed to return to the antebellum status quo in a treaty signed at Ghent, Belgium, on December 24, 1814. This treaty was ratified by Britain four days later and by the U.S. Senate on February 16, 1815. Between these dates a final battle was fought on January 8, when a British army landed at the mouth of the Mississippi River and was defeated near New Orleans by forces under Andrew Jackson.The Treaty of Ghent failed to secure U.S. maritime rights, but in the century of peace in Europe from 1815 until World War I they were not

seriously threatened. Britain never again pursued its disputes with the United States to the point of risking another war. The United States did not conquer Canada, but Native American opposition to American expansion in the Northwest and Southwest was broken. Both the United States and Canada emerged from the war with an increased sense of national purpose and awareness.