War of 1812

            
             American Neutrality in 1812
             When we hear the phase, "the forgotten war", most of us think of the military conflict on the Korean Peninsula from June 1950 to July 1953. The most famous incident of this "forgotten war" occurred in 1951, when President Truman relieved General MacArthur of his command. MacArthur returned to America, where he was hailed as a hero and urged to run for president. He chose instead to retire to private life after a farewell address to a joint session of Congress in which he quoted a World War I British Army song: "Old soldiers never die; they simply fade away" ("1951", 1995, 1996). However, the US has an earlier, more important, and more completely forgotten war. This is the War of 1812, in which the young nation won its independence from Great Britain for the second time in less than fifty years.
             Few people today are aware that the United States had to fight the War of Independence twice, or that the US ever had a war with Canada. The War of 1812 placed the US against its former colonial ruler, Great Britain, and lasted two and a half years. The war reached its high point with the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815, and thereafter, Britain finally came to recognize the US as an independent nation with the power to defend itself. The British regarded the War of I8I2 as an annoying appendix to the greater struggle against Napoleonic France, and the Canadians viewed it as a clear case of American aggression. To the Americans, however, this conflict was an enigma. The Americans entered the war with confused objectives and divided loyalties and made peace without settling any of the issues which had motivated the young nation to go to war. The basic issue has been presented as the violation of American neutrality in the war between Britain and France, with the!
             illegal seizure of American ships and the illegal impressment of American citizens into the B...

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War of 1812 . (2000, January 01). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 22:39, March 18, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/60767.html