Results

Though a relatively small war, with fewer than 6,000 American casualties, the War of 1812 produced several significant results. Consider the following essay question:

What were the significant effects of the War of 1812?

Click each of the analytical main points to see the evidence to support each one.

First, the conflict broke Native American military power along the frontier.

Tecumseh fell at the Battle of the Thames in 1813, his dream of a pan-Indian movement dying with him. In the South, Andrew Jackson's men inflicted a crushing defeat on the Creek Indians at Horseshoe Bend in Alabama. Native Americans could no longer resist white settlement of lands east of the Mississippi.

The War of 1812 also dealt a lethal blow to the Federalist party.

Outspoken in their opposition to the war, New England Federalists traded with Britain during the war and even supplied British armies in the field with meat and grain. In 1814, Federalists met at the Hartford Convention to discuss their opposition to the war. Some even wanted to secede from the Union and make a separate peace. After the Americans withstood the British invasions of 1814 and routed the redcoats at New Orleans, Federalist prestige dropped. Appearing disloyal to many Americans, the party soon faded from the nation's political scene.

Of even greater significance was the wave of nationalism that swept the country following the war.

Many Americans learned of Jackson's victory at New Orleans before or at the same time they learned about the Treaty of Ghent. This strengthened a perception that the United States had prevailed. Even those who recognized the inconclusive results of the peace agreement could take heart that the Americans had again survived a war with the British military machine. For many citizens, the War of 1812 proved the republic could defend its independence.

The new American confidence soon manifested itself in foreign affairs.

In 1818, General Jackson violated presidential orders and crossed into Spanish Florida pursuing Seminoles. The outraged Spanish, distracted by the independence movements in their Latin American colonies, could offer little military response. Despite Jackson being censured by Congress and losing prestige, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams used the opportunity to convince the Spanish they could no longer defend their colony. Spain ceded Florida to the United States in 1819.

The Monroe Doctrine

In 1823, the increasingly assertive nation issued the Monroe Doctrine. The statement, delivered by President James Monroe, warned the European powers that the United States would not tolerate their interference in the newly independent republics of Latin America. The United States had, in effect, declared that the era of European colonization in the New World was over. Although this statement of power was bold, the U.S. lacked any method of enforcement. However, the British found the doctrine aligned with their own interests to keep other European nations away from trading relationships the British had already created. It was the British Navy that enforced the Monroe Doctrine until the U.S. developed a powerful fleet at the end of the nineteenth Century.