It seems difficult to understand that in a country it is known by the name of the Forgotten War a warlike conflict that was its first official declaration of war since its independence, in which it fought against the country in which many of them had been born or from which their parents or grandparents came, in which an episode occurred that was the origin of its national anthem, in which the capital of the country was taken and set on fire, in which a character who was already known for his role in the Indian wars was elevated to the category of national hero for his war exploits, which allowed him to to reach the presidency of the country or in which an event as curious as a battle took place when the war had already ended.
However, all these circumstances occur in the war between 1812 and 1814 between the United States of America and Great Britain. This conflict is effectively known by that nickname in the United States, since over time it has ended up going almost unnoticed in the face of the two great wars that took place in the country:that of Independence from Great Britain and that of Secession between the Union and the Confederacy.
There were several reasons that led the US House of Representatives to declare war on Great Britain on June 18, 1812. We talked about some of them in the entry dedicated to British assault on the USS Chesapeake. The British were not at all happy with the declared neutrality of the United States in their war in Europe against Napoleonic France, which implied disregarding the commercial blockade against France decreed by Great Britain. In addition, the former colonial power did not recognize the right of those born in its country to opt for American nationality. For Great Britain, nationality was inalienable and she considered United States citizens born on the islands as British deserters from the war against France; he considered himself entitled to arrest and imprison them anywhere in the world, even boarding ships flying the American flag. Finally, the United States contemplated its territorial expansion to the North as an objective and set its sights on Canada, which was still under British rule.
Militarily, the war did not go very well for the Americans. The two attempts to invade Canada (in 1812 and 1813) failed; the British gradually imposed their naval power and blocked strategic places such as the Hudson Bay that gave access to New York, the Mississippi River in its access to New Orleans and the Chesapeake Bay that controlled access to the country's capital, Washington. There, determined to teach their former subjects a lesson, they stormed the city and burned the city's main public buildings. The first lady of the country Dolley Madison had to personally save the original document of the Declaration of Independence from the flames.
Thus, the two countries began peace negotiations that concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent on December 24, 1814, which ended the conflict by accepting both parts return to status quo prior to the North American declaration of war. However, it was not only the first war declared by the United States since its independence and it was against the former homeland of its inhabitants and it is not only remembered for having taken place and burned of Washington, but in the relatively brief conflict there were two more events that were forever marked in the history of the country.
The first of these took place in New Orleans on January 8, 1815; Yes, you have read the date correctly. The Treaty of Ghent had been signed on December 24, 1814 and both countries had made peace…but the news had not yet reached New Orleans, which had been besieged by an English naval force of 10,000 men. The city was defended by a colorful American force under the command of Major General Andrew Jackson who had become famous during the confrontations with the Indians. The garrison included not only US Army soldiers but also former slaves, Indians, frontier adventurers from Kentucky and Tennessee, and a group of pirates from Jean Lafitte's gang. They had a total of 4,000 defenders, but Jackson managed to overcome the adverse circumstances and numerical inferiority, leading the American troops to achieve a useless victory from a military point of view, but one that remained in the memory of the Americans as a moral victory. Jackson's name was etched in the history of the country and he went on to be elected president of the country in 1828.
The second pivotal event for the United States took place in September 1814 at Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor. In one of the British ships that carried out the siege, the lawyer and poet Francis Scott Key was imprisoned, who observed how the British bombarded the place for 24 hours without being able to take it and without being able to take down the flag of the stars and stripes that was waving in the fort. The next day Key composed a poem that eventually became the lyrics of the United States anthem that today is sung every day by the spectators of any sporting event that is celebrated in the country. Here you can read the lyrics of the anthem in Spanish and English.
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