The Reasons of United States Participation in the War of 1812 Research Paper

The Reasons of United States Participation in the War of 1812 - Research Paper Example At that time, the US was providing France with most of the goods that she needed along the way. Using the power of her navy, Great Britain blocked all ways by which the trade happened between the French coasts and the Caribbean and the US Atlantic coasts. The only vessels that were allowed to pass unimpeded to the US were those that had passed through one of the ports of Great Britain. This raises many questions like; Why did the US enter into a war with Great Britain despite conducting trade with it? What were the economic interests of the US to enter the war? And how popular was the war among the Americans? To address these questions, this paper will; first, discuss some of the consequences of the American Revolution and personal interests of the Americans, the Amerindians, and the British whose conflicts contributed to the commencement of the War of 1812; second, explain the strategies used by the Great Britain to restrict the export of the American goods to France that provided t he US with an objective reason to start the war in national defence and explains that the firm support of the native Indian uprisings in the western territories of the US as well as in the continental US for the British government in Canada was a huge concern for the Americans, and third, briefly discusses the results of the war and the advantages and disadvantages of the participation of the Americans in the war. The advantages described there also highlight some of the potential reasons for the participation of the US in the War of 1812. II. Body The Revolutionary War was brought to an end as the Treaty of Paris was signed in the year 1783. As a result of the Revolutionary War, the US was established among the world’s nations. However, the Treaty of Paris neither provided any guarantee for the survival of the new nation nor guaranteed that the European powers would always respect the rights of the new nation. In order to be in the position to freely carry out the trade with all countries across the globe, the government of the US strived hard to strike a balance between diplomacy and preparedness of the military. From the year 1793 to the year 1815, Great Britain and France saw a period of prolonged wars that instigated the French Revolution, and immensely complicated the tendency of the US to safeguard the rights of sailors and shipping. In addition to that, a significant population of the Americans along the western frontier of the nation believed that the Indian raids were encouraged by the British in Canada on their settlements. After the American Revolution, not everyone was satisfied with the way the land had been divided. The British and the Canadian merchants were both displeased over the loss of the Ohio River valley that encapsulated numerous routes through which trade could be conducted. Also, a large Amerindian population dwelled in the Ohio River valley, a major part of which had sided with the British during the American Revolution, and were by then willing to have an Indian state created toward the Lake Erie’s south and west. The idea was warmly welcomed by the British because it served numerous interests of the British. For one, this would facilitate the fur trade.  Ã‚