The war was fought from 1812 to 1815, although a peace treaty was signed in 1814. By the end of the war, 1,600 British and 2,260 American soldiers had died. Great Britain had been at war with France since 1793 and in order to impede neutral trade with France in response to the Continental Blockade, Britain imposed a series of trade restrictions that the U.S. contested as illegal under international law.The Americans declared war on Britain on June 18, 1812 for a combination of reasons including outrage at the impressment (conscription) of American sailors into the British navy, frustration at British restraints on neutral trade, and anger at alleged British military support for American Indians defending their tribal lands from encroaching American settlers.
On June 18, America declared war on Britain. The war had many causes, but at the center of the conflict was the United Kingdom’s ongoing war with Napoleon’s France.
The War of 1812 was seen by the people in British North America, and later Canada, as a victory as they successfully defended their borders from an American takeover. The outcome gave Empire-oriented Canadians confidence and, together with the postwar "militia myth" that the civilian militia had been primarily responsible rather than the British regulars, was used to stimulate a new sense of Canadian nationalism
A long-term implication of the militia myth that remained popular in the Canadian public at least until World War I was that Canada did not need a regular professional army.
The US Army had done poorly, on the whole, in several attempts to invade Canada, and the Canadians had shown that they would fight bravely to defend their country. But the British did not doubt that the thinly populated territory would be vulnerable in a third war. "We cannot keep Canada if the Americans declare war against us again" Admiral Sir David Milne wrote to a correspondent in 1817.
The Battle of York demonstrated the vulnerability of Upper and Lower Canada. In the 1820s, work began on La Citadelle at Quebec City as a defence against the United States. The fort remains an operational base of the Canadian Forces. Additionally, work began on the Halifax citadel to defend the port against American attacks. This fort remained in operation through World War II.
In the 1830s, the Rideau Canal was built to provide a secure waterway from Montreal to Lake Ontario avoiding the narrows of the St. Lawrence River where ships could be vulnerable to American cannon-fire. The British also built Fort Henry at Kingston to defend the canal and remained operational until 1891.
The war is scarcely remembered in Britain because it was overshadowed by the far larger conflict against Napoleon Bonaparte. Britain's goals of impressing seamen and blocking trade with France had been achieved and were no longer needed.
In the early years of the nineteenth century, the Royal Navy was the dominant nautical power in the world. It used its overwhelming strength to cripple American maritime trade and launch raids on the American coast. However, the Royal Navy was acutely conscious that the United States Navy had won most of the single-ship duels during the war. The causes of the losses were many, but among those were the heavier broadside of the American 44-gun frigates, and the fact that the large American crews were hand-picked from among 55,000 (rounded) unemployed merchant seamen in American harbors. The United States Navy had 14 frigates and smaller ships to crew at the start of the war, while the United Kingdom maintained 85 ships in North American waters alone. The crews of the British fleet, which numbered some 140,000 men, were rounded out with impressed ordinary seamen and landsmen.] In an order to his ships, Admiral Warren ordered that less attention be paid to spit and polish and more to gunnery practice.] It is notable that the well-trained gunnery of HMS Shannon allowed her victory over the untrained crew of the USS Chesapeake