Both governments were eager for a return to normality and peace negotiations began in Ghent in August 1814. In April 1814, with the defeat of Napoleon, Britain now had large numbers of spare troops and adopted a more aggressive strategy, launching invasions of the United States however, an invasion of New York was defeated at Plattsburgh, and a second force, although successfully capturing Washington, was ultimately repulsed during an attack on Baltimore. forces took control of Lake Erie in 1813, and seized western parts of Upper Canada, but further American offensives aimed at Montreal failed, and the war also degenerated into a stalemate in Upper Canada by 1814. was able to inflict serious defeats on BritainвЂ™s Native American allies, ending the prospect of an independent Indian confederacy in the Midwest under British sponsorship. armies demonstrated that the conquest of the Canadas would prove more difficult than anticipated. With the majority of its land and naval forces tied down in Europe fighting the Napoleonic Wars, the British used a defensive strategy until 1814. At the end of the war, both sides signed and ratified the Treaty of Ghent and, in accordance with the treaty, returned occupied land, prisoners of war and captured ships (with the exception of warships due to frequent re-commissioning upon capture) to their pre-war owners and resumed friendly trade relations without restriction. Third, large-scale battles were fought in the Southern United States and Gulf Coast. Second, land and naval battles were fought on the U.S.вЂ“Canadian frontier.

First, at sea, warships and privateers of each side attacked the otherвЂ™s merchant ships, while the British blockaded the Atlantic coast of the United States and mounted large raids in the later stages of the war. The primary British war goal was to defend their North American colonies they also hoped to set up a neutral Native American buffer state in the US Midwest that would impede US expansion in the Old Northwest and to minimize American trade with Napoleonic France, which Britain was blockading. The United States declared war for several reasons, including trade restrictions brought about by the British war with France, the impressment of as many as 10,000 American merchant sailors into the Royal Navy, British support for Native American tribes fighting European American settlers on the frontier, outrage over insults to national honor during the ChesapeakeвЂ“Leopard Affair, and interest in the United States in expanding its borders west. By the warвЂ™s end in early 1815 the key issues had been resolved and peace returned with no boundary changes. Historians in the United States and Canada see it as a war in its own right, but the British often see it as a minor theatre of the Napoleonic Wars. The War of 1812 was a military conflict that lasted from Jto February 18, 1815, fought between the United States of America and the United Kingdom, its North American colonies, and its Native American allies.

War of 1812 reenactments 2019