Causes and Effects of the War of 1812 One major cause of the war of 1812 was that the British Royal Navy was impressing Americans. At least 6,000 mariners claimed to be citizens of the United States, when in all reality, they weren’t. The Chesapeake- Leopard Affair would be an example of Americans being impressed by the British. The British approached the American ship, asked for 4 sailors and the Americans refused. The British then took the 4 sailors and then fired on the Americans. The British interfered with American trade by invading costal cities (ports). This upset the Americans. They still felt the effects of the negative conditions of pre-revolution. For example, New Orleans was a trade port that was invaded by the British. With the British invading the ports, this affected the income for the goods and supplies. Another major cause of the War of 1812 was that Americans were dismayed by British instigation of the native population on the western frontier. The British encouraged Native Americans to attack the Americans and this turned out to be extremely effective. However, Native Americans were used on both sides of the conflict. The support of Native Americans during …show more content…
The War Hawks were Americans who were made up of Democratic- Republicans and popularly termed as Hawks. The Hawks were people in favor of war and saw the invasion of Canada as extremely important to their independence. The Americans depended on militias, but they either resisted service or were incompetently led. Outside of the Political issues Madison (the residing President of the United States) had with Canada, it was the closest British colony. The British in Canada were accused of arming Native Americans and stifling the progress of Western American expansion. Most Americans assumed that invading Canada would be easy but they were wrong and it did not go through the way they