The War of Independence may have established these United States as a sovereign nation but the War of 1812 removed any doubt. After years of aggression by British flagged vessels on the high seas, President James Madison signed on this day a declaration of war on the “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the dependencies thereof.” Sure, the city of Washington was sacked and burned, but we prevailed in the end. Otherwise, there’d be spelling errors all over this website.
To paraphrase the Wikipedia entry about Daniel Webster and his work:
“Webster’s innovative ideas about language and politics are why his endeavors were at first so poorly received. Culturally conservative Federalists denounced the work as radical—too inclusive in its lexicon and even bordering on vulgar. Meanwhile Webster’s old foes the Jeffersonian Republicans attacked the man, labeling him mad for such an undertaking.”
Is this when the Canadians burned your White House?
To the victor the gift of language…. English.
Yes the US has much to be grateful for from the colourful French when they came to your aid by blockading the British supply routes with their navy. In fairness, the British were rather busy in India at the time. ;0)
Oh I almost forgot to mention, the British were also rather engaged in kicking a little Corsican’s backside around this time which eventually culminated in a little skirmish known as Waterloo. Still let there be no animosity and accept our gift, the use of our language !
On a separate note, great website !
How it really went down…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aue-zWxYtEc
The Empire strikes back…..
yeah….pretty sure the US marched North and was summarily beat further south than when they started. Detroit was kind of dirty so we gave it back ;P
I live on the Burlington Heights where a force of 700 British soldiers, native warriors and militia set out and beat back 3400 invading American troops at Stoney Creek.
Still not entirely sure how the US prevailed. If being fought to a stalemate is prevailing, I guess they did.
We won, you got Detroit, we got Florida.