Essay On The War Of 1812 Dbq

Words: 690
Pages: 3

In 1812 America was still a young weak nation. The threat of war with Great Britain was brewing for a long time, the war was not unexpected. Our leaders at the time tried avoiding the war. But Europe was violating American rights such as freedom of the seas, expansion of territory. Our nations rights were being violated therefore Americans needed to stand up and show the world America is a country not to mess with .
One of America's rights violated as a new Nation was freedom of the sea's. During this time period travel and trade by sea's was extremely dangerous. As stated in document four by President James Maddison "...violence.... wrested from their lawful destinations." James Maddison can be described as a War Hawk, a War Hawk can be described
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As seen in document nine by Felix Grundy stated " Great Britain alone has intercourse with those northern troops." The northern troops he is talking about are the ones that remained in the new territory of the Louisiana Purchase. The Louisiana Purchase was when French gained control of the Mississippi river and began taxing the western farmers. President Jefferson's attempt to purchase the port of New Orleans but Napoleon offered to sell the entire territory. Which doubled United States territory but also increased national debt. The thinking along with this is that those northern troops were still connected to Europe and would plan an attack against us which is why American wanted the troops off of our territory. This leads into document three John Randolph stated "agrarian cupidity, not maritime rights, urges the war." Although this is an opinion people of the United States were moving west after the Louisiana Purchase. After America won the revolution we had a greed for land which just kept growing with time. As seen on the table on document six all Federalist opposed the war at a vote of 0 yes and 40 no while Democratic-Republicans (War Hawks) defended the war by a vote of 98 yes and 22 no. This is a second reason as t why America declared war at such a young stage of our country.
America was such a young new nation when Europe though that they could take advantage of us . Our