Objective: To examine the major events leading up to the War of 1812.

Ponder: How was the U.S. able to profit from the war between England and France?

Answer:

• U.S. merchants profited by selling goods to both the British and the French.

France

Great BritainAmerican merchant

You boys can keep on

killing each other. If either of y’all need anything, just

give us Yankees a

holler!

I hate you, French dude!

Je vous hais plus!

France

Great BritainCauses of the War of 1812• In 1803, Britain and France went to war again.

• Both countries seized U.S. ships sailing towards the ports of their enemy.

• Britain continued its’ impressment of U.S. sailors.

Between 1808 and 1811 over 6,000 Americans were impressed by the British.

One cause of the War of 1812 was the British disregard of American shipping rights. British ships frequently stopped American ships, confiscated their cargo, and impressed (captured) crew members, claiming they were deserters from Britain’s Royal Navy.

American merchant

True, but that’s not

what I had in mind!

President Thomas Jefferson

I know what to do! If we don’t allow American ships to trade with anyone, then they

won’t get attacked!

Embargo Act (1807)

• The Embargo Act banned U.S. ships from trading with any country.

• This hurt the U.S. economy!

• All imports and exports were banned!

War Hawks

34 year old Henry Clay, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and War Hawk leader.

War Hawks – members of Congress, led by Henry Clay of Kentucky, that wanted to declare war on Great Britain

I. Nationalism – pride or devotion to one’s country

• Many Americans felt that Great Britain still treated the United States like a British colony.

II. Revenge

• War Hawk’s wanted to revenge on Britain for seizing American ships.

War Hawk’s Rationale for War

War Hawk’s Rationale for War

III. Territorial Expansion

• Henry Clay wanted an excuse to conquer Canada from Great Britain and Florida from Spain.

IV. Native American Attacks• War Hawks felt that Great Britain was arming Native

Americans on the frontier and encouraging them to attack Americans.

Washington, D.C is Attacked

• In 1814, the British set Washington, D.C. on fire, including the White House

• The city was completely unprepared for the invaders, but one woman took immediate action. Even as people were fleeing the city in droves, First Lady Dolley Madison refused to leave without some of the nation's most important treasures-including the famous Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington.

The Star-Spangled Banner

• The British attacked Fort McHenry at Baltimore.

• Francis Scott Key watched the battle from a British ship, where he was trying to convince the British to release an American prisoner.

When the smoke cleared, “our flag was still there”.

In response, Key wrote the poem “Defence of Fort M'Henry”, which later was put to music and renamed “The Star-Spangled Banner”.

The Star-Spangled Banner

written in Francis Scott Key’s own handwriting. (1840)

Bombshells that exploded into deadly fragments were Britain's most formidable weapon against Fort McHenry. Seamen launched the bombs from ships known as bomb vessels using mortars with a range of about 2.5 mi.

The original Star-Spangled Banner The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History

, Washington, D.C.

http://americanhistory.si.edu/about/ssb.cfm#gallery

The Star-Spangled Banner

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming? And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there. O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

The Prophet and Tecumseh

Tenskwatawa, also known as “The Prophet”

• Tenskwatawa, also known as “The Prophet”, believed that in order to survive, Native Americans had to give up white ways of life.

Chief Tecumseh of the Shawnee tribe

The Prophet and Tecumseh

• Tecumseh unified many tribes behind the message of the Prophet, who was his older brother.

• In 1808, the Prophet built a village for his followers in Tippecanoe, Indiana.

William Henry Harrison, Territorial Governor of Indiana

Showdown at Tippecanoe

• In 1811, fearful of the growing strength of the Prophet and Tecumseh, Governor William Henry Harrison led 1,000 troops against them in the Battle of Tippecanoe.

• The battle was viewed by Americans as a major victory, even though it was unclear which side actually won.