What are you taught in the states about the war of 1812?

Question

I have heard that you learn very little about the war of 1812, and wondered why? It was a battle in that war that your national athem was written about, that seems pretty important.
Is it because you lost the war?

We were taught that you attempted to invade by invitation of the French. Your armies were horribly beaten back by farmers and aboriginals, lead by lower generals(as the higher ones were busy with Napolean). We then chased you back to America and battered your forts. When it was clear that you had lost we left and you never again tried to invade us, I would count that as a loss.

Answer 1

The U.S. "lost the War of 1812"? What are YOU taught about it???

Personally I was taught that the British won the war, soundly defeating those silly Americans, and took back their lost colonies, abolishing the USA. As I underastand it, they only let us keep our poor country because their only hope of developing real military might was to develop it in a loosely controlled puppet government of some country that didn't actually charge 63% of your wages just for unarmed police and mediocre health care.

But we're pretty screwed up over here...

Xan Shui,
Philosophic Philanthropist, Honest Man

Answer 2

I find it amazing that my fellow Canadians can spew our own fictionalized history version of history and use it to attack the American version of the same. Fact is nobody won the war, but nobody lost either. What happened is the basic military realities of the time were proved. By land Canada was pretty much indefensible. The British would not be able to muster a sustainable force against an American invasion without huge investment and the whole militia/aboriginal allies scheme, although useful, had a very definite problem with durability. That said, the American nation, in particular their large commercial cities on the eastern seaboard had a snowballs chance in hell of defending themselves from the Royal Navy which proved it's point quite well in the Cheasepeake campaign. To put it bluntly both sides learned that the other was going to be here to stay and we've gotten along for the large part ever since. It's for that reason that Americans don't learn much about the war because nothing really happened. The status of North America that was established in the 1790s was going to stick. That was all that was gained. We only talk about it Canada because we have a lot of anti-American historians with a little man complex.

Me personally, I don't understand why our history has to have these failings. Yeah, we're a small country without a huge impact on the world, but look at what we've achieved relative to our size. Our army was one of the premier fighting units engaged in the Great War and one that was particularly feared by our enemies. We stepped up and made substantial contributions along side the Great Powers in the Second World War ( at one tenth the population of the US, we landed just less than a third as many troops on the beaches of Normandy) yet nobody talks about this type of stuff. It's always, ha ha, we kicked the Americans *** two hundred years ago. It's time to give it up and talk about something real.

Answer 3

I'll answer this from memory only; I'll not look anything up.

Between the American Revolution (1775-83) and the Civil War (1861-65), there were two wars that made the history books: the War of 1812 (1812-14) and the Mexican War (1845-46). The undeclared war against the Barbary pirates (1800?) didn't quite make it.

As I recall, perhaps from nontraditional sources such as Howard Zinn, it was a combination of eastern merchant interests and western business interests (real estate speculators?) that lobbied for war. The impressment issue was pretext -- an excuse -- to start the war.

Much of the fighting, especially early in the war, was along the Canadian frontier. Detroit (Fort Pontchartrain) changed hands two or three times ... Gen'l Anthony Wayne may have been there. There was a pitched battle at Lundy's Lane (Niagara), and Commodore (Admiral?) Perry won the naval Battle of Lake Erie at Put-in-Bay (Sandusky, Ohio). There may have been British campaigns in the Mohawk Valley (western New York state) and/or the Hudson Valley -- maybe in the Lake Champlain region (Ft. Ticonderoga?).

Somewhat later a British fleet shelled Ft. McHenry (Baltimore harbor, 1814), and a British expeditionary force occupied Washington, D.C., burning the Capitol and forcing the president and his wife (James and Dolly Madison) to flee.

In the west, along the Ohio River, where war fever was high, Andrew Jackson made a name for himself. Moving south, he inflicted a major defeat on the Creek Indians at Horseshoe Bend in Alabama, then moved into New Orleans. The famous Battle of New Orleans actually occurred after an armistice had been agreed on by the warring parties.

There was also a war at sea. "Old Ironsides" -- the U.S.S. Constitution, now in Boston Harbor, outfought H.M.S. Guerriere (sounds French!), and there were a handful of other American men-of-war that took to the seas. The British Navy, of course, controlled the oceans, and I suspect that a blockade was imposed. The Battle of Mobile Bay, in which Adm. David Farragut uttered some famous phrase that I've forgotten, was fought during the War oif 1812.

I think the history books declare the war a stalemate, but the Americans got the worst of it. On the other hand, America did get a measure of respect from the international community at the time.

There were two important outcomes. First, Canada remained a part of the British Empire (Commonwealth?). (I don't think it was a Dominion yet.) (And as I write this, I vaguely recall that there was a befuddled campaign by some Vermonters to invade Canada, perhaps near Montreal. It failed miserably.)

A second, albeit indirect, result of the war was that the undefined boundary between Maine and New Brunswick/Quebec was settled by treaty shortly afterward.

Since I wrote all this from memory (and sometimes my memory is fuzzy), parts of this essay may be flat-out wrong. But it's the best I can do, especially not having studied for this essay question.

Answer 4

The war was fought because the British and French were at war, and both sides were forcing U.S. sailors to join their navy. Since we pretty much owed the French after the Revolutionary war, we decided to get mad at the British. Things didn't go to well at first, and Washington got sacked. But the battles eventually came to a draw, and the British said they'd stop pressing our boys into their military service if we'd leave them alone. So while a military victory wasn't won, the US got what it wanted. After the treaty had been signed, Andrew Jackson and a bunch of privateers slaughtered numerous British Soldiers in New Orleans, as news of the cessation of hostilities hadn't reached that far yet.

Answer 5

I wouldn't say we lost the war. The war ended with the Treaty of Ghent, which established that there would be no territorial concessions made by either side. We certainly didn't do well in the war, but one of the important things we learn about the war of 1812 is that it proved that we could stand our ground as a country. We had, after all, fought the great nation of Britain to more or less a tie.
To the issue of how much we learn about the war, I don't personally feel that we learn less than would be normal. I must admit, I remember learning very little about it in elementary and middle school, but last year in my Advanced Placement US history class, I felt we learned the basic information about the war. The fact that we didn't do particularly well in the war was probably one reason why we didn't learn more than we did, but one more important reason is that the war of 1812 wasn't incredibly consequential in American history. There were a few important impacts, of course: It demonstrated our sovereignty and has been called "the second war of independence," it improved our military, it was (on more of a trivial note than anything) the only time the white house has ever been invaded, and it dramatically improved our manufacturing capabilities due to the British blockade. However, it wasn't as influential in our society as other major events had been, since there were no territorial gains or other major changes specifically due to the treaty. In contrast, the Revolutionary war gave America its independence and the Civil War eliminated slavery, established the modern balance between federal and states' rights, and restructured the American economy, among other things. So in comparison to other wars, the war of 1812 wasn't as important and that's why it's not taught as much.
Another possible reason why it isn't taught as much as other things is because, I believe I remember learning this, Americans weren't incredibly patriotic about this war. It wasn't like the Revolutionary war where Americans came together to fight the British- this time it was over more (seemingly) trivial things like territorial gain, and it seemed more frustrating to the Americans than inspiring.
I hope I helped: Like I said, I think we learned pretty much about the war in 1812, I could tell you the basic history of the war, but we don't learn too much about it and I hope I explained why.

Answer 6

From my experience in school, we were taught that America got involved to protect Americans. The British were fighting the French and they would capture American ships (ex. merchant ships) and force the Americans to serve in the British navy. So America got mad and declared war against the British. It is taught that we didn't win however after the Treaty of Ghent everything was restored to status quo. It is emphasized that America held it's own considering it was a new nation.

On a side note, the Francis Scott Key poem was not adopted as the national anthem until the 1930's.

Answer 7

Well, although technically it was a draw, it may count as a victory to the US, they reassured their independence (its also known as the Second War of Independence), they proved they had a consistent navy (John Paul Jones screwed many british frigates) as well as a decent Army. Aslo, they won most of the battles, including one that was fought AFTER the war had already ended; Jackson and his Tenesee Militiamen battered the Brits at the Battle of New Orleans and pushed them to the sea...

No, I wouldnt count it as a US defeat.

Answer 8

Hi Canada ,, where did you get the idea we lost the war???

actually we won it because Britian was having problems with Napoleon at that time and could not fight a 2 front war....
They quit stopping ships and taking American salors and kidnapping them,, they did burn Washington,,, but lost because they did not succed in conquoring the fort where the National Anthem was written.... they left in fact the next day....
and .. after the war was officially over thru a peace treaty ,,, the Battle of New Orleans was fought in Chalmette, just South of New Orleans and thousands of British were slaughtered and only few Americans were.... They were led by future president Andrew Jackson with the aid of such colorful characters as Jean Lafitte the pirate....

So,, there you have it... I suggest you go read your history books a little better.....

Answer 9

yes its because the US got their Asess kicked! to the canadians it was very important too. it prooved the existence of canada!

Laura Secord is still our heroine. and the war of 1812, the americans were such bastords. like honestly, who would dress up in a canadian/british uniform, follow the troop and then shoot the general from behind? losers would. also the tactics that the US used were so stupid. when they attempted to raid into a canadian city, the canadians/british set up a barricade and hid behind it, the American soldiers stood in a line right infront of the baricade and just kept getting shot down. the americans were also scared of the aboriginal fighters too (you guys refer to them as indians)

we were taught that the americans became ambitious and wanted more land after their independence and they wanted to conquer upper and lower canada. and for several other reasons of course too...

Answer 10

simple fact is usa tried to take canada as part of the usa but were beaten back. they lost what they set out to do so lost is lost whatever your fictional american history books say, and G you really dont have a clue ,do you?