HISTORY

Win or Lose: The Eternal Question of the War of 1812?

The measured question for the War of 1812 is . . . did we win? The usual response is that the US did not win the war. The measure for this success or failure is did the participant in the war achieve their stated goals. The normal answer is that the US didn’t achieve its goals. I question this as an answer.

WWI: Did the US get the War to End All Wars? Did we make the world Safe for Democracy? Sadly no. We got fascist and communist states . . . don’t forget we got WWII. Hardly the War to End All Wars. So by the same standards we use for the War of 1812 . . . We lost WWI.

Texas Revolution of 1836: We celebrate in legend and lore 185 soldiers holding off 5,000 for 13 days at the Alamo. Yet the Texans wanted more territory. An expedition to Matamoros failed (It’s still part of Mexico. It lost more battles that it won (and pretty gruesome defeats at that.) Yet because we didn’t get Canada, the War of 1812 was a failure. So by the same standards we use for the War of 1812 . . . Texas lost the Texas Revolution of 1836.

American Revolution: We wanted Canada then to . . . and we were unable to take it (Although we won more battles in Canada that time around.) It’s one of the causes for the War of 1812. We felt it was the missing piece of the revolution. Still our stated goal was to get Canada and we didn’t get it. So by the same standards we use for the War of 1812 . . . America lost the American Revolution.

If you look closely at the results of the War of 1812, this is what happened in relation to our goals:

No more impressment of our sailors. We got this on June 16th 1812 (two days before the war started.) England never again went back to this practice . . . even in 1815, when Napoleon came back to power. Was it in the treaty? No. But then it didn’t have to be. It was over before the war started. Did we get what we wanted?

Unrestricted Western expanse without interference from England. England never again supplied eastern Native Americans with arms and encouraged them to attack American settlements. Ignoring the morality of the US- Native American conflict, the US is the clear winner here. The power of eastern Native Americans was broken forever. Did we get what we wanted?

Additional North American territory from European powers (specifically Canada . . . if it was available via marching into it.) Turns out that Canada was not available. The Canadians didn’t want to be part of the US. Did we gain territory? Absolutely . . . we took western Florida from the Spanish, an English ally. Did we get what we wanted (remember we only wanted Canada if the Canadians were willing)?

Did the British get what they wanted?

Teach the upstart Americans a lesson. Don’t think that worked . . .

Gain Territory. The English did want to regain some of the territory it lost in the American Revolution. Specifically parts of Maine. They also wanted us to give up all of Michigan and half of Ohio to Native Americans to act as a buffer state. What did it get? Not an inch.

Restrict American expansion westward. Don’t think that worked . . .

The actual result was:

• The US, with a tiny 7,000-man army, defended itself against a much larger and much more experienced army (Plattsburg, Thames, Baltimore and New Orleans). Did it win all the battles, no. Did we have some disasters . . . yes (British burned Washington). We certainly didn’t do any worse than the defenders of the Alamo. (Davy Crockett, would certainly tell you that his 1813 battles had more successful outcomes that his 1836 engagements.)
• We did exceptionally well against a navy over 10 times the size of ours.
• We learned important lessons:
  • The Jefferson experiment would not work (agricultural nation, with almost no standing army, that imports all it’s manufactured goods.) … this set us on the road to true statehood.
  • We avoided two future wars (Oregon and Aroostook War)
  • We became a huge ally of our opponents (UK, Canada) with the largest unfortified boarder on the planet.
    

Seems like one of the most successful wars we ever had . . . the one that should be the model for how you treat your opponents after.