- •Early america
- •Native Americans
- •E uropeans Explore the New World
- •Causes of Exploration
- •Motives for Exploration
- •Spaniards in the New World
- •The English in the New World
- •The Old and New Worlds Meet
- •The colonial period
- •The Chesapeake Settlements
- •Cultural Focus: Setting up Slavery
- •The New England Colonies
- •The Mayflower Compact
- •Cultural Focus: Thanksgiving Day
- •The Southern Colonies
- •Colonial Life and Institutions
- •New England
- •The Middle Colonies
- •Southern Colonies
- •Colonial Culture
- •Fighting for independence Colonies on the Eve of the Revolution
- •The French and Indian War
- •Taxation without Representation
- •American Revolution
- •War Begins
- •Declaration of Independence
- •Fighting for Independence
- •Forming a republic
- •The us Constitution
- •Focus on Government
- •Westward expansion
- •Acquiring Western Lands
- •The War of 1812 and its Effect
- •Cultural Focus: Uncle Sam
- •Settling the Frontier
- •Life on the Frontier
- •Indian Resistance and Removal
- •The civil war and the reconstruction
- •New States: Free or Slave?
- •The South and the North
- •The Conflict Begins
- •Fighting for the Union
- •The After-War Period
- •The Reconstruction Period
- •2) Recruit, recruitment
- •Growth and transformation
- •The Last Frontier
- •Industrial Growth
- •Immigration in the Age of Industrial Growth
- •Labor Unions
- •The Progressive Era
- •Cultural Focus: National Parks in America
- •2) Annihilate, annihilation
- •3) Exterminate, extermination, exterminator
- •4) Magnify, magnification
- •Modern history the united states before, during and after world war I
- •Becoming an Empire
- •The usa before World War I
- •Entering the War
- •Cultural Focus: Veterans' Day
- •Post-War Years
- •The Booming Twenties
- •The Great Depression
- •Isthmus, annexation, collide, ultimatum, crucial, negotiate, armistice, consumerism, disparity, subsidy
- •World war II and its aftermath
- •Beginning of World War II
- •The usa in World War II
- •The usa after World War II
- •The Post-War Foreign Affairs
- •The Cold War at Home and Abroad
- •The post-war era
- •Changing Economic Patterns
- •New Patterns of Living
- •Cultural Focus: Levittown
- •The Culture of the Fifties
- •The Other America
- •1) Suburb, suburban, suburbanite, suburbia
- •2) Fertile, fertility, fertilize, fertilizer
- •3) Metropolis, metropolitan
- •Time of change
- •Cold War – 2
- •The War in Vietnam and Watergate
- •The Civil Rights Movement
- •Ethnicity and Activism
- •The Rise of Feminism
- •The Revolt Generation
- •Approaching the new era
- •From Recession to Economic Growth
- •The End of the Cold War
- •Information Age and the Global Economy
- •Terrorism
- •Bibliography
The War of 1812 and its Effect
Since the beginning of the 19* century, the United States suffered from the consequences of Napoleonic Wars in Europe. While Great Britain was fighting against France, the USA remained neutral, and continued trading with both countries.
As both warring countries tried to stop American aid to its rivals, they attacked American fleet – between 1804 and 1807, the USA lost more than 700 merchant ships because of British attacks and about 200 – to the French. Jefferson's government passed the Embargo Act forbidding all exports from the United States to any country, but it didn't work.
The relations between Britain and the USA grew worse, the war seemed inevitable. In addition, many Americans favored the conquest of British Canada, which could eliminate British influence among the Indians and open new lands for colonization.
In 1812, President James Madison asked the Congress to declare war against Great Britain and the USA went to war. The war brought no success for Americans – they began with invasion of Canada, but the British won and soon occupied Detroit. The other battles of the war proceeded on the Great Lakes and in the nearby territories. The British fleet was defeated and the northwest territory remained American.
The other British attacks were from the south – they attacked New Orleans hoping to gain control of the Mississippi River. Americans, led by General Andrew Jackson, got the greatest victory of the war, but they didn't know that a peace treaty (the Treaty of Ghent) had been signed already. It was negotiated to restore the prewar status quo.
The War of 1812, though bringing no resolute victory, had certain consequences for American international policy – till the end of the century the nation avoided European conflicts (as it was the British-French conflict that had drawn the USA into war). For a long period after the war Americans also tried to prevent European intrusion into the Western Hemisphere – this idea was expressed in the Monroe Doctrine – the message of President Monroe to Congress on December 2, 1823. The Doctrine called for.
noncolonization of the Western Hemisphere by European nations;
nonintention by Europe in the affairs of independent New World nations;
noninterference by the United States in European affairs including those of Europe's existing New World Colonies.
The Monroe Doctrine became the foundation of American policy in the Western Hemisphere.
The War of 1812 also had disastrous results for most Indian tribes – they lost Tucemseh, the most powerful Indian leader, and they lost their strongest ally – the British, so many midwestern tribes had no resources with which they could resist American expansion.
For Americans the war revealed their weaknesses in defense and transportation, which were vital for westward expansion (in 1815, Congress voted for a standing army of 10,000 men – three times bigger as before). The problems with transportation made the government think of better roads – by the middle of the 19th century, the Appalachian Mountain barrier was pierced by five railway lines that linked the east with the midwest. New roads were constructed to promote connections with frontier lands. All these measures encouraged westward expansion.