FP - James Madison (Lesson)
James Madison
Father of the Constitution, James Madison, led the United States during the War of 1812.
War of 1812
During the late 1700s the British and French were involved in a naval war which extended to the Western Hemisphere. British naval forces harassed American merchant ships; and they engaged in a tactic known as impressment in which American sailors were taken from their vessels and forced to work on British ships. Additionally, because of the conditions of the 1783 Treaty of Paris which ended the Revolutionary War, the British Army was given no timeline for evacuating forts in American territory. Americans wanted to remove the British forces in America to Canadian territory where they were fighting the French. Furthermore, by removing British forces from American territory, they would be unable to assist Native Americans in the area and thus allow for Americans to further expand West into the Ohio River Valley without British interference. These factors caused President James Madison to reluctantly declare war on Great Britain on June 12th, 1812.
The war was fought along the American and Canadian border, on the Atlantic Ocean and in the American South. The American Navy, while outmatched by the British Navy, was able to withhold the superior British naval force for the duration of the war. One key event of the war was the American victory at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland. While a victory in of itself, it is also notable as the event for which Francis Scott Key wrote the poem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” that would eventually become the United States’ national anthem. In perhaps one of the most notable moments in American history, the most decisive battle of the War of 1812 actually occurred after the war was over. The Treaty of Ghent, signed in December of 1814, officially ended the War of 1812. Because the Treaty of Ghent was signed in Ghent, Belgium, there was a delay in communicating word of the end of the war. Therefore, in early January 1815 American general Andrew Jackson led his forces to victory in the Battle of New Orleans. New Orleans was and is an important geographic location for power in North America and the Western Hemisphere because of New Orleans’ location along the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. The British suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Jackson and his forces. Shortly thereafter, Americans received word of the end of the war and Jackson was deemed a hero, a title that paved the way to the presidency for Jackson in 1828.
After the War
The American victory over the British in the War of 1812 created an increased sense of nationalism among the American people. Having defeated the British twice, the American people believed they had now established themselves as a world power and had gained the respect of the international community. The British and United States never waged war against one another again. During the war the United States had to build their own industries as the British blockaded the East coast. As a result, the United States had established itself as an industrial contender on the world stage. The War of 1812’s end signaled the beginning of a new outlook on the strength of the United States of America both among Americans and the nations of the world.