Wednesday Regency: War of 1812

I consider the Regency Era the time period, not specific to England. Then again, in America the only things they cared about when it came to England was keeping them on their side of the Atlantic Ocean. There was definitely no love lost between those two countries.

England didn't truly consider America its own country, and America had their own problems with English naval ships taking Americans off their own ships in the thinly veiled notion that they were Englishmen not Americans and thus subjected to English conscription.

Monday June 18, 2012 marked the 200th anniversary of the start of the War of 1812. America's second Revolution. Presidents, cult songs and a national anthem, legends of Dolley Madison and George Washington, and the White House all came about because of this war. (There's a great History Channel show on it, too.)

From BBC:

American President James Madison signed a declaration of war against Great Britain. The first time the United States had declared war against another nation, it was not an action that enjoyed unanimous support in Congress.

War rarely is unanimously supported, but the reasons for President Madison doing so included:

• British habit of forcing American merchant sailors into the Royal Navy
• Trade restrictions on the US as a side-effect of Britain's seemingly endless war with France
• British support for Native Americans as they fought against the US government's westward expansion.
  

America was on France's side against England...I think they'd have been on any one's side against Great Britain when it came down to it.

10 Things You May Not Know about The War of 1812:

1. The bicentennial of the War of 1812 is a much bigger deal in Canada than in the United States.
2. American leaders expected that Canadians would greet them as liberators.
3. The War of 1812 produced its own Paul Revere, except this folk hero warned the British that the Americans were coming.
4. “The Star-Spangled Banner” was set to the tune of an English drinking song.
5. During the war, New Englanders considered seceding from the United States.
6. Before the British set Washington, D.C., ablaze, the Americans torched a capital city.
7. A serendipitous thunderstorm and a lethal tornado saved Washington, D.C., from further destruction.
8. After being torched, Washington, D.C., was nearly abandoned as the national capital.
9. The biggest American victory came after the signing of the peace treaty.
10. It’s unclear who, if anyone, won the War of 1812. It’s clear, however, who lost.