1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:07,440 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff Lauren 2 00:00:07,480 --> 00:00:12,240 Speaker 1: Vogelbaum here. The War of eighteen twelve doesn't loom as 3 00:00:12,360 --> 00:00:15,920 Speaker 1: large in the United States consciousness as some other conflicts, 4 00:00:16,120 --> 00:00:19,160 Speaker 1: but it was an important one in that it basically 5 00:00:19,200 --> 00:00:22,320 Speaker 1: settled the matter of the American Revolution once and for all. 6 00:00:23,920 --> 00:00:28,000 Speaker 1: Just a quarter century after the Revolutionary War, Americans brashly 7 00:00:28,040 --> 00:00:31,120 Speaker 1: took on the British Empire in a rematch, partly to 8 00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:35,080 Speaker 1: resolve lingering grievances, but also with the ambitious aim of 9 00:00:35,120 --> 00:00:40,080 Speaker 1: seizing Canada, and instead came perilously close to a catastrophic 10 00:00:40,159 --> 00:00:42,760 Speaker 1: defeat that would have endangered the very future of the 11 00:00:42,840 --> 00:00:48,279 Speaker 1: United States. But the Americans, despite suffering the indignity of 12 00:00:48,360 --> 00:00:52,000 Speaker 1: having invaders torched their capital city, managed to fight the 13 00:00:52,040 --> 00:00:56,040 Speaker 1: British to a stalemate. The conflict ended with a peace 14 00:00:56,080 --> 00:00:58,440 Speaker 1: treaty in which the US didn't have to give up 15 00:00:58,440 --> 00:01:03,000 Speaker 1: any territory and retained the ability to expand westward, and 16 00:01:03,040 --> 00:01:05,400 Speaker 1: the British had to accept the US as a truly 17 00:01:05,480 --> 00:01:10,319 Speaker 1: separate nation and trading power. For the article, this episode 18 00:01:10,400 --> 00:01:12,720 Speaker 1: is based on How Stuff Works, spoke by email with 19 00:01:12,760 --> 00:01:16,320 Speaker 1: Willard Stern Randall a Professor Emeritus and Distinguished Scholar and 20 00:01:16,440 --> 00:01:21,480 Speaker 1: History at Champlain College. Randall said the Revolution only assured 21 00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:25,720 Speaker 1: political independence, it did not guarantee the economic survival of 22 00:01:25,720 --> 00:01:30,520 Speaker 1: the United States. After the Treaty of Paris was signed 23 00:01:30,520 --> 00:01:33,800 Speaker 1: in September of seventeen eighty three to end the Revolutionary War, 24 00:01:34,240 --> 00:01:37,639 Speaker 1: relations between the US and the British Empire remained tense, 25 00:01:38,080 --> 00:01:42,319 Speaker 1: with the British viewing Americans as commercial rivals. In the 26 00:01:42,319 --> 00:01:46,440 Speaker 1: early eighteen hundreds, the United States grievances crystallized into several 27 00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:51,520 Speaker 1: main points. A first was freedom to trade. The US 28 00:01:51,560 --> 00:01:53,600 Speaker 1: became caught up in the war between the British and 29 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:57,400 Speaker 1: Napoleon's French Empire, with each power trying to restrict the 30 00:01:57,480 --> 00:02:01,840 Speaker 1: US from trading with the other. Eventually, the French relented, 31 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:06,560 Speaker 1: but the British wouldn't. Randall said. The US wanted to 32 00:02:06,560 --> 00:02:09,440 Speaker 1: stay in neutral country so we could trade with anybody, 33 00:02:09,720 --> 00:02:15,040 Speaker 1: but the British did not believe in neutrality. Second, the 34 00:02:15,200 --> 00:02:18,440 Speaker 1: US was angered by the Royal Navy's practice of impressment, 35 00:02:19,040 --> 00:02:22,359 Speaker 1: that is, boarding American merchant ships and seizing sailors who 36 00:02:22,560 --> 00:02:27,520 Speaker 1: claimed were British deserters. The fledgling nations saw impressment as 37 00:02:27,560 --> 00:02:30,360 Speaker 1: assigned that the British didn't respect the US as an equal, 38 00:02:30,760 --> 00:02:34,720 Speaker 1: but instead as a former colony that it could bully. 39 00:02:34,880 --> 00:02:37,560 Speaker 1: To add to the insult, the British also didn't respect 40 00:02:37,600 --> 00:02:40,480 Speaker 1: the right of sailors to give up being British subjects 41 00:02:40,639 --> 00:02:45,920 Speaker 1: and choose US citizenship. And third, the British supported the 42 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:50,240 Speaker 1: Native Americans who were resisting US expansion along the western frontier, 43 00:02:50,800 --> 00:02:53,320 Speaker 1: in part to protect British interests in the fur trade 44 00:02:53,480 --> 00:02:58,520 Speaker 1: from American intervention. In addition to settling those differences with 45 00:02:58,560 --> 00:03:02,280 Speaker 1: an armed conflict, the United States also saw an opportunity 46 00:03:02,360 --> 00:03:05,800 Speaker 1: to seize Canada from the British. This was not a 47 00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:08,960 Speaker 1: new concept. It had first surfaced during the Revolutionary War, 48 00:03:09,120 --> 00:03:12,560 Speaker 1: when Benedict Arnold helped lead an unsuccessful invasion of Canada 49 00:03:12,760 --> 00:03:17,720 Speaker 1: in seventeen seventy five to seventeen seventy six. Unfortunately, the 50 00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:22,639 Speaker 1: lesson of that debacle hadn't sunk in. One vociferous advocate 51 00:03:22,680 --> 00:03:26,600 Speaker 1: of a Canadian invasion was then former President Thomas Jefferson, 52 00:03:26,880 --> 00:03:30,399 Speaker 1: who proclaimed that taking the lightly defended British colonial possession 53 00:03:30,600 --> 00:03:35,160 Speaker 1: quote will be a mere matter of marching with all 54 00:03:35,200 --> 00:03:38,480 Speaker 1: of these issues in mind, Congress passed a declaration of 55 00:03:38,520 --> 00:03:41,800 Speaker 1: war against the British in June of eighteen twelve, which 56 00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:46,360 Speaker 1: President James Madison quickly signed into law. But while the 57 00:03:46,520 --> 00:03:49,360 Speaker 1: US had plenty of kutzpah to take on the British, 58 00:03:49,720 --> 00:03:54,840 Speaker 1: it was woefully underprepared from a military standpoint. Randall said, 59 00:03:55,200 --> 00:03:58,000 Speaker 1: we had three thousand soldiers and they had two hundred 60 00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:01,520 Speaker 1: and fifty thousand. In Europe alone, we had twenty ships, 61 00:04:01,680 --> 00:04:06,520 Speaker 1: they had nine hundred. On top of all that, the 62 00:04:06,520 --> 00:04:09,440 Speaker 1: timing of the US declaring war, which came about a 63 00:04:09,480 --> 00:04:13,640 Speaker 1: week before Napoleon launched an invasion of Russia, enraged the British. 64 00:04:14,360 --> 00:04:16,880 Speaker 1: Randall said, the British felt we had stabbed them in 65 00:04:16,920 --> 00:04:20,640 Speaker 1: the back. On land, things went badly for the US 66 00:04:20,800 --> 00:04:25,200 Speaker 1: pretty quickly. General William Hull's initial foray into Canada in 67 00:04:25,279 --> 00:04:28,400 Speaker 1: June of eighteen twelve failed and he withdrew to Detroit, 68 00:04:28,640 --> 00:04:31,440 Speaker 1: where he soon found himself under siege by the British 69 00:04:31,480 --> 00:04:34,800 Speaker 1: and their Native American allies under the leadership of Dacumsa. 70 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:38,839 Speaker 1: Together they fooled Hull into thinking that they had a 71 00:04:38,960 --> 00:04:42,760 Speaker 1: much larger force, and in August of eighteen twelve, Hull surrendered, 72 00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:47,159 Speaker 1: a humiliating defeat. A second US attack on Canada in 73 00:04:47,200 --> 00:04:50,719 Speaker 1: October of eighteen twelve led to another disastrous defeat in 74 00:04:50,800 --> 00:04:53,960 Speaker 1: the Battle of Queenston Heights, in which three hundred Americans 75 00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:58,200 Speaker 1: were killed and almost a thousand were taken prisoner. The 76 00:04:58,320 --> 00:05:02,640 Speaker 1: US did better on the water. The USS Constitution, later 77 00:05:02,720 --> 00:05:07,160 Speaker 1: nicknamed Old Ironsides, pursued and defeated the British HMS Guerriere 78 00:05:07,279 --> 00:05:10,000 Speaker 1: off the coast of Nova Scotia in August of eighteen twelve, 79 00:05:10,279 --> 00:05:13,760 Speaker 1: damaging the British ship so badly that, after its captain surrendered, 80 00:05:13,880 --> 00:05:16,880 Speaker 1: it had to be sunk. The British, who had been 81 00:05:16,960 --> 00:05:21,520 Speaker 1: confident of their naval superiority, were stunned. But even greater 82 00:05:21,640 --> 00:05:25,560 Speaker 1: losses were inflicted by the large US force of privateers, 83 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:28,919 Speaker 1: ships owned by American businessmen, to whom Congress gave the 84 00:05:28,960 --> 00:05:32,400 Speaker 1: authority to wage a for profit war on the British navy. 85 00:05:33,480 --> 00:05:36,000 Speaker 1: Over the course of the war, the privateers captured some 86 00:05:36,120 --> 00:05:41,080 Speaker 1: one thousand, five hundred British ships. Blockade runners daringly did 87 00:05:41,120 --> 00:05:44,160 Speaker 1: their best to keep the US economy going, slipping through 88 00:05:44,200 --> 00:05:47,080 Speaker 1: the British naval vessels in fog storms and the dark 89 00:05:47,080 --> 00:05:52,599 Speaker 1: of night to transport flower, tobacco, and cotton. After Napoleon 90 00:05:52,680 --> 00:05:55,080 Speaker 1: was defeated and forced into exile in the spring of 91 00:05:55,120 --> 00:05:58,400 Speaker 1: eighteen fourteen, the British could afford to send more troops 92 00:05:58,400 --> 00:06:01,640 Speaker 1: across the Atlantic, and the ruation got scary for the US. 93 00:06:02,920 --> 00:06:05,720 Speaker 1: In August of that year, a British force invaded Maryland 94 00:06:05,800 --> 00:06:09,560 Speaker 1: and then marched on Washington, d c. The invaders ate 95 00:06:09,640 --> 00:06:12,360 Speaker 1: food and drank wine from the table of President Madison 96 00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:15,080 Speaker 1: before setting fire to the White House and numerous other 97 00:06:15,120 --> 00:06:20,000 Speaker 1: public buildings. The arson was in retaliation for a similarly 98 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:25,080 Speaker 1: brutal American sacking of York now Toronto in Ontario, but 99 00:06:25,279 --> 00:06:29,120 Speaker 1: British Rear Admiral George Cockburn, who orchestrated it, later had 100 00:06:29,120 --> 00:06:32,760 Speaker 1: his official portrait painted with Washington burning in the background. 101 00:06:34,040 --> 00:06:37,800 Speaker 1: Randall said, nobody imagined the British would try to destroy 102 00:06:37,880 --> 00:06:41,000 Speaker 1: our capital. Most Americans didn't know what we had done 103 00:06:41,040 --> 00:06:44,760 Speaker 1: in Canada, and Madison and his cabinet were clueless about war. 104 00:06:45,200 --> 00:06:52,200 Speaker 1: They didn't even try to defend Washington. However, another British target, Baltimore, 105 00:06:52,640 --> 00:06:56,480 Speaker 1: a home port to many privateer vessels, was much better prepared. 106 00:06:57,600 --> 00:07:00,640 Speaker 1: A Fort McHenry, which protected the harbor, was stood an 107 00:07:00,640 --> 00:07:03,720 Speaker 1: intense twenty five hour long attack in mid September by 108 00:07:03,760 --> 00:07:09,080 Speaker 1: British warships, which eventually had to withdraw. That victory inspired 109 00:07:09,080 --> 00:07:12,040 Speaker 1: Francis Scott Key, who was on a ship several miles away, 110 00:07:12,280 --> 00:07:15,360 Speaker 1: to compose a song, the Star Spangled Banner, to celebrate 111 00:07:15,480 --> 00:07:20,760 Speaker 1: the American resistance. Meanwhile, an attempt to invade New York 112 00:07:20,840 --> 00:07:24,160 Speaker 1: that September was thwarted in the Battle of Lake Champlain, 113 00:07:24,560 --> 00:07:29,040 Speaker 1: where US naval forces defeated British ships that put an 114 00:07:29,120 --> 00:07:31,800 Speaker 1: end to a British strategy of driving a wedge into 115 00:07:31,880 --> 00:07:34,480 Speaker 1: the middle of the US, an attempt to take back 116 00:07:34,560 --> 00:07:39,360 Speaker 1: northern New England as a British possession. That defeat was 117 00:07:39,360 --> 00:07:42,560 Speaker 1: so decisive that the British commander who had defeated Napoleon, 118 00:07:42,720 --> 00:07:46,120 Speaker 1: Arthur Willisley, the Duke of Wellington, concluded that the war 119 00:07:46,320 --> 00:07:49,680 Speaker 1: was unwinnable and declined to take over command of British 120 00:07:49,680 --> 00:07:54,440 Speaker 1: forces in the US. Randall said it was Wellington who said, 121 00:07:54,600 --> 00:07:56,520 Speaker 1: get out of there. You can't win it unless you 122 00:07:56,560 --> 00:07:59,560 Speaker 1: control the lakes, and they couldn't. The bottom line was 123 00:07:59,600 --> 00:08:02,320 Speaker 1: that England was broke. The ministry didn't want to go 124 00:08:02,360 --> 00:08:04,600 Speaker 1: to Parliament again and say we need more money to 125 00:08:04,640 --> 00:08:08,000 Speaker 1: continue fighting in America. The taxpayers wouldn't go for it. 126 00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:13,600 Speaker 1: In the peace talks that were already underway, British negotiators 127 00:08:13,640 --> 00:08:17,400 Speaker 1: abandoned their hardball territorial demands and started looking for a 128 00:08:17,480 --> 00:08:21,120 Speaker 1: quick way out. They even abandoned a key demand for 129 00:08:21,280 --> 00:08:24,440 Speaker 1: creation of a sanctuary for their Native American allies in 130 00:08:24,480 --> 00:08:27,480 Speaker 1: the American Midwest, which would have made it difficult for 131 00:08:27,560 --> 00:08:31,320 Speaker 1: the US to expand westward. If the US had been 132 00:08:31,360 --> 00:08:34,200 Speaker 1: forced to grant that concession, it might have remained a 133 00:08:34,280 --> 00:08:39,480 Speaker 1: small country along North America's eastern seaboard. In December of 134 00:08:39,520 --> 00:08:42,520 Speaker 1: eighteen fourteen, the signing of the Treaty of Ghent ended 135 00:08:42,559 --> 00:08:47,040 Speaker 1: the war, but being that it was signed in Ghent, Belgium, 136 00:08:47,200 --> 00:08:51,600 Speaker 1: and instantaneous electronic communication didn't exist in those days, word 137 00:08:51,679 --> 00:08:54,240 Speaker 1: didn't get back to North America soon enough to stop 138 00:08:54,280 --> 00:08:58,120 Speaker 1: British troops from attacking New Orleans in January of eighteen fifteen. 139 00:08:59,400 --> 00:09:02,760 Speaker 1: They were by General Andrew Jackson's forces in a short 140 00:09:02,800 --> 00:09:06,280 Speaker 1: but brutal battle. They killed two thousand British soldiers in 141 00:09:06,360 --> 00:09:11,040 Speaker 1: less than thirty minutes. A. Randall said, Jackson had hundreds 142 00:09:11,080 --> 00:09:15,080 Speaker 1: of trained frontier marksmen. They killed off the British officers 143 00:09:15,120 --> 00:09:18,400 Speaker 1: from the commanding general all the way down. The British 144 00:09:18,400 --> 00:09:21,360 Speaker 1: soldiers who weren't killed were trying to hide under the bodies. 145 00:09:23,120 --> 00:09:25,840 Speaker 1: The bloody victory had no effect on the war's outcome, 146 00:09:26,120 --> 00:09:29,880 Speaker 1: but it made Jackson into a legend and eventually helped 147 00:09:29,960 --> 00:09:34,080 Speaker 1: him get elected as president. The war, in which some 148 00:09:34,200 --> 00:09:37,960 Speaker 1: twenty two hundred and sixty American service members lost their lives, 149 00:09:38,160 --> 00:09:41,240 Speaker 1: ended in a stalemate, but surviving it was a larger 150 00:09:41,360 --> 00:09:44,120 Speaker 1: victory for the United States, which was then able to 151 00:09:44,160 --> 00:09:52,160 Speaker 1: grow into a world power. Today's episode is based on 152 00:09:52,160 --> 00:09:54,839 Speaker 1: the article The War of eighteen twelve. The White House 153 00:09:54,840 --> 00:09:57,800 Speaker 1: Burns and the Star Spangled Banner is born on houstuffworks 154 00:09:57,800 --> 00:10:00,839 Speaker 1: dot Com. Written by Patrick J. Higer. Brain Stuff is 155 00:10:00,880 --> 00:10:03,840 Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com and 156 00:10:03,920 --> 00:10:06,880 Speaker 1: is produced by Tyler Klain. But four more podcasts my 157 00:10:06,920 --> 00:10:10,680 Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 158 00:10:10,720 --> 00:10:12,280 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.