War of 1812
The War of 1812, between the United States of America and the British Empire (particularly Great Britain and British North America), was fought from 1812 to 1815.
There were several immediate stated causes for the U.S. declaration of war: first, a series of trade restrictions introduced by Britain to impede American trade with France, a country with which Britain was at war (the U.S. contested these restrictions as illegal under international law); second, the impressment (forced recruitment) of U.S. citizens into the Royal Navy; third, the British military support for American Indians who were offering armed resistance to the expansion of the American frontier to the Northwest. An unstated but powerful motivation for the Americans was the need to uphold national honor in the face of what they considered to be British insults (such as the Chesapeake affair).
The war was fought in four theatres: on the oceans, where the warships and privateers of both sides preyed on each other's merchant shipping; along the Atlantic coast of the U.S., which was blockaded with increasing severity by the British, who also mounted large-scale raids in the later stages of the war; on the long frontier, running along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River, which separated the U.S. from Upper and Lower Canada (Ontario and Quebec); and finally along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, where U.S. General Andrew Jackson defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend (1814) and a major British regular army at the Battle of New Orleans (early 1815).
During the course of the war, both the Americans and British launched invasions of each other's territory, all of which were unsuccessful or gained only temporary success. At the end of the war, the British held parts of Maine and some outposts in the sparsely populated West while the Americans held Canadian territory near Detroit, but these occupied territories were restored at the end of the war.
There were actually several reasons why did the war of 1812 started. The official reason as made clear in the declaration of war by the United States of America to Great Britain was the Impression Issue that was made by the British Government under their Orders-in-Council. This Impression Issue is an act whereby men are forced by the government for induction into military service.
Great Britain during those days was already fighting in another front, against Napoleon Bonaparte of France. Great Britain was fighting alongside Spain and Portugal against the Army of Bonaparte who were trying to control the Iberian Peninsula which is composed of Spain and Portugal. Although Great Britain has the biggest navy in the world at that time, the pay and living conditions of their sailors were harsh compared to sailors working on vessels of other countries.
The War of 1812 was fought between the United States and Great Britain from June 1812 to the spring of 1815, although the peace treaty ending the war was signed in Europe in December 1814. The main land fighting of the war occurred along the Canadian border, in the Chesapeake Bay region, and along the Gulf of Mexico; extensive action also took place at sea.
