The War of 1812 proved to be a serious challenge for the United States. This was the second war for Independence and changed American history as we know it. The war was unnecessary from a British point of view but for the Americans it was inescapable. Before the War of 1812 the British’s needs for men were growing as a result from their ongoing war. The British fleet was expanding and the usual methods for recruitment were not filling the gap. British sailors were leaving the navy for better wages and conditions found on American ships. The American people were growing tired of the British forcing American sailors to serve in the Royal Navy. The Royal Navy had kidnapped 3,800 American sailors and pressed them into service. The British would often wait just off the shore of the U.S. territories and search ships for contraband while impressing some of the crew for service.
Orders in Council from the British had deprived the United States of a profitable trade with France and can be seen as having ruthlessly subordinated American economic interests to the political interests of the British Empire. American farmers also blamed the orders for a fall in agricultural prices that produced a depression in the West in the years immediately before the war. On the frontier Indian restlessness was stirred up by British agents as well as American oppression. America's war with Britain seemed inevitable although the Americans did everything they decently could to avoid it, although there seemed to be endless provocation by Britain, for example in 1807 when a British frigate, the leopard, opened fire on an American frigate the Chesapeake. The choice before America, Jefferson the former president and his successor Madison agreed was war or submission to fight or to undo one of the main achievements of the revolution and accept total defeat in international affairs to England.
The Battle of Tippecanoe was a decisive victory led by Governor of the Indiana Territory William...