Let's Have a Talk: The War of 1812.

I was doing some reading last night on Canadian history and came across a chapter on the War of 1812.  When I finished the chapter, the thought crossed my mind that the 200th anniversary is well on its way, and that in the United States, it will largely get ignored in lieu of the commemorations being held everywhere regarding the American Civil War.  Thinking further back, I remembered how in history classes in high school, 1812 was often ignored outright, if not given a very minor mention.  This is unfortunate, as it is one of the three conflicts I consider to be instrumental in shaping the political and cultural landscape of North America as it exists today.  For Canadians, the War of 1812 was in many ways the birth of our nation.  For Americans, it opened up your path towards Manifest Destiny, confirmed to the World what had been achieved in the earlier revolution, and served as both the finale and opening act of the generation of the founding fathers and their children, respectively.

Even more impressively, for the first time in history, a nation won a war by means of conference rather than superiority of arms.  True, the British had the business over in Europe to deal with at the time, but they were by no means distracted enough to not be able to give adequate attention to what was going on over in our world.  Quite frankly, there was some pretty amazing diplomatic force present at that Treaty of Ghent.  Despite enormous losses on the frontier, which included the capture of Detroit and Chicago (then Ft. Dearborn), and the near outright destruction of Buffalo, the United States managed to keep the border at the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence River.  Despite the mess that British regulars made of Washington and Baltimore, the United States kept its sovereignty intact.  While it was true that Baltimore was successfully defended, and American forces did secure a number of other victories, they were by no means significant enough to justify a return to ante bellum status of borders and rights.  Instead, the United States won a diplomatic victory the likes of which has never been trumped.  This bolstered the national confidence and gave credence to a spirit of expansionism that until then had been kept somewhat in check by the warnings of George Washington to be satisfied with independence and not become involved with international matters.    The renewed energy would result in the construction of the Erie Canal, the start of extensive settlement in the Midwest and Lakes, and the creation of a northern limit giving rise to looking towards defining a southern boundary.  This would prove to be the start of turbulent times for Native Americans and Mexicans, especially for the peoples of the Ohio Valley.

The outcome encouraged President Madison to make some interesting statements during his seventh annual State of the Union Address.  In effect, this war not only secured American independence, but that of the entire continent from foreign domination.  In an age where our economic sovereignty has come into question in the face of increasing dominance by nations such as China, we might be seeing this doctrine invoked a bit more in the future.  Ever since 1814, North America has been made into what it has become not because of world scale imperialism, but because Canada, the United States, and Mexico, have learned that cooperation and inter-dependence have truly shaped our part of the world into what it has become.   Do not get me wrong, I "believe" in humanity and the progression of the world.  At the same time, regional development counts for something.  That, I suppose, is a post for another time, a time in which I have become much more informed and can witness certain conditions first hand.

So about those neighbors then?  Well, for Canada and Canadians, who are quite well educated on the importance of this conflict, this was freedom and the start of the forging of a national identity.  While the concept of true sovereignty was a bit farther away, "Canada" looked like it was starting to have a chance beyond "land that the Yankees are going to take away maybe next year".   While the history books and popular jest like to insist that Redcoats did all the work, the truth of the matter was that the locals, be they native or transplanted, did a substantial amount of fighting.  For that matter, it was not the Redcoats that had their homes and fields burned to the ground.  Many battles had men and sometimes even women fighting for their homes that were perhaps no further than a mile or so away.  The Battle of Chateauguay, in fact, was fought almost entirely by Canadians born on North American soil.

In the coming year, I plan to visit and re-visit many of the key sites associated with the war, and will leave some posts about impressions (with photographs, of course) as I come to them.  In the meantime, check out your local bookstores for titles on the subject, which I have been noticing have been displayed even in the United States lately!