name the war of 1812

Charge_7 said:
I'd suggest "The Second War for Independence" as it was the central issue of having Britain recognize us as a sovereign power that drove it.

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Britain recognized the USA as a sovereign power in the Treaty of Paris after the American War of Independance.

In the British-American War of 1812 ( we Brits really can't call it The War Of 1812, because we were already fighting a far more important war against the French at that time as well ), US maritime rights was a major factor in the US declaring war on Britain, but the USA's sovereignty as a nation was never under any threat from Britain.
 
Hmm, so I guess "maritime rights" of not being called a subject of the crown and compelled to its service wouldn't be an issue of sovereignty huh?
 
behemoth79 said:
inspired by a reply from charge_7, i thought about a fitting name for the war. lets hear some ideas.

"The 'WTF?' War", or just plain "Huh??" for short.

Its one of those lovely little wars that, at the end of the day, both sides more or less would just prefer to pretend the whole thing never happened. The USA thought that Canada wanted to be liberated when it didn't really want to be. That theory was quite thoroughly shattered. They were quite happy with British rule in fact.

We were angry about the impressing of our sailors, this is true. There was some small disagreement about borders and the who was allowed to do what where and when without asking. But nothing useful was accomplished other than proving that the War of 1812 probably ought not to have been fought to begin with and all parties involved seemed quite happy to wash their hands of the whole affair.

Another good name for it: "Whoops .. Um .. Nevermind"
 
godofthunder9010 said:
behemoth79 said:
inspired by a reply from charge_7, i thought about a fitting name for the war. lets hear some ideas.

"The 'WTF?' War", or just plain "Huh??" for short.

Its one of those lovely little wars that, at the end of the day, both sides more or less would just prefer to pretend the whole thing never happened. The USA thought that Canada wanted to be liberated when it didn't really want to be. That theory was quite thoroughly shattered. They were quite happy with British rule in fact.

We were angry about the impressing of our sailors, this is true. There was some small disagreement about borders and the who was allowed to do what where and when without asking. But nothing useful was accomplished other than proving that the War of 1812 probably ought not to have been fought to begin with and all parties involved seemed quite happy to wash their hands of the whole affair.

Another good name for it: "Whoops .. Um .. Nevermind"

that is very true. the history classes, even the advanced placement ones, tend to spend very little time on the war of 1812. the main thing you learn in it is that the star spangled banner was written. it is a war that america and england would like to say never happened.
 
Much of the talk about this war was over Britain taking sailors from American ships. Yet most of these sailors were of British descent and had previously served in the Royal Navy, and Britain thought it had a right to get this Sailors to serve their country in its hour of need. Many of the British sailors who had left the Royal Navy often sought a berth on an American ship, as the pay and conditions were a lot better, these men could often be told apart from the Americans by there different county accents. The Americans on the other other hand did not like to lose such trained men from their merchant fleet, as it should be remembered in those days no one bothered much about such things as passports. Now if any American that reads this thinks this is a little unfair then just think back to the times of the Vietnam war and ask yourself just how hard did America purse any one of American extraction that was not reporting for their military draft and compare it to the the way Britain was collecting up it's sailors.
 
Not really a comparison there. I really have never heard of US Vessels stopping, boarding, and removing crew from Canadian Flagged Ships in the 1960's.
 
Pursuing thru the Courts is a far cry from boarding the vessels of a soveriegn nation and impressing the crew members.
 
Agreed 03USMC.....But life was a bit different in those days and so was communications. Shall we say that we beg to differ on this matter.
 
The War of 1812 was somes refered to as the 2nd American Revolution by in the early 19th century.
 
well science theres shows like "Thats 70's show"
i guess you can name it "That war of 1812"
 
This clearly is important for Americans as you're the only ones that seem bring it up. As always its perspectives the only thing that matters from the British point of view was that yet again we had a war on the periphery of the main event and that was Global domination! And the Canadians proved that actually were not that bad a lads! cheers! Ooh just had a thought! how about instead of War of 1812, The War of National Awareness!
 
I can't believe this is still going on too after my extended hiatus from this forum. How bout we just leave the unispired name alone? It wasn't a major conflict and no one really gained anything from it. I'm guessing that whoever name it the war of 1812 probably felt the same since it lasted 2 years and was a part of the much larger napoleonic conflict.
 
WarMachine said:
I can't believe this is still going on too after my extended hiatus from this forum. How bout we just leave the unispired name alone? It wasn't a major conflict and no one really gained anything from it. I'm guessing that whoever name it the war of 1812 probably felt the same since it lasted 2 years and was a part of the much larger napoleonic conflict.
Why didn't they call it the War of 1812-1813 then?
 
It is funny, but in Russia they have the same problem -one of the few things that are common for Russia and the U.S. of A.
In June 1812 Napoleon has invaded Russia, burnt Moscow(another similarity!), which was not the official capital at that time, however.
Then he had to leave in a hurry and his Grand Army has been almost decimated by the Russian Army, guerilla fighters, hunger and cold.
This war is called in Russia as The War of 1812 or the Patriotic War.

That piece by Tchaikovsky that the Americans so love to hear on July 4th is called "1812" in memory of THAT war!
 
Just in case anybody really cares, the Treaty of Ghent was concluded on Christmas Eve 1814, and though the Battle of New Orleans was fought from late December 1814 until January 8th of 1815, the treaty wasn't proclaimed until February 1815.



It was also confused at the start:

American general William Hull commanded the left flank of the American attack on Canada in 1812, but no one told him that war had been declared. So he sent baggage, medical supplies tools and a trunk containing details of the column, his orders, and campaign details past a British fort, which were intercepted. Hull was later duped into surrendering a fort by a much weaker force. The British dressed villagers as redcoats, made the Indians look bloodthirsty by wearing war-paint and provided mis-information that more Indians were on the way (shades of the river Plate!). It didn't help taking his daughter and her children with him on the campaign. He was later court marshalled for cowardice.

In 1815 at New Orleans the tables were turned, it seems that neither the American general Andrew Jackson nor Sir Edward Pakenham in charge of the British forces, seemed to know that the war had officially ended (or had it?) Jackson had a motley crew of infantry ranging from regulars to militia and pirates, so he choose a well defended position and ‘invited the British to attack his 5000 muskets over a 1000 yard front with bayonets. The British duly obliged, and subsequently suffered 2100 casualties compared with 21 for the Americans.

So what's the practical difference between "concluded" and "proclaimed", to allow some time to settle differences? No wonder this was one war everyone tried to forget.
 
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Another bit of useless infomation.

The war 1812 was actually called the 2nd American Revolution for a time until its name was changed.
 
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