What Are The Reasons For The War Of 1812 Ambiguity

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To begin with, The War of 1812 to me is appealing because of the ambiguity. The reason most often given for The War of 1812 is the British Impressment of American Sailors; American Sailors would be kidnapped and be forced into British servitude. This disrupted American Shipping and is a blatant infringement of American Authority, but it’s a little more intricate than that. Second of all, there were many thousands of British sailors employed aboard American ships so many of the sailors that the British captured, were in fact, British. However, this gets to the larger point that Citizenship at the time was a pretty slippery concept, in particular on the high seas. Also, papers would often be forged, and many sailors would identify that they …show more content…

According to Virginian Congressman John Randolph “Agrarian cupidity, not maritime right, urges the war. Ever since the report of the Committee on Foreign Relations came into the House, we have heard but one word- like the whip-poor-will, but one eternal monotonous tone- Canada! Canada! Canada!” The time fits in the Jefferson model of an Agrarian Republic. However, another reason for going to war was expansion into territories that Native Americans occupied. Some tribes tried to assimilate into American society such as the Cherokee’s while other tribes tried to resist and the tribe most well known for that is Tecumseh's Confederacy. The Americans responded with guns and William Henry Harrison lead the Battle of Tippecanoe which led him to the presidency but he got sick and died 40 days later after giving his inauguration speech. However, the War of 1812 was the first time America had ever declared war, and it was somewhat of a farce. The U.S Armed forces at the time were insignificant at the time compared to British troops. The British Navy had a thousand ships while the American Navy had 17 ships. Also, America collected little money, and Britain received 40x more revenue than the U.S. However, Britain was fighting Napoleon and didn’t start kicking America’s butt until 1814 after Napoleon was defeated. Napoleons defeat was the end of impressment since Briton didn't need as many sailors

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