The Treaty of Ghent, signed on Christmas Eve, 1814, ended the War of 1812 and established a new foreign policy dynamic between the United States and Great Britain. Historians usually skip by the treaty with little notice, explaining that it ended the war "status quo antebellum" -- that is, the war essentially changed nothing. In truth, however, it verified a new shared-power relationship between the former enemies.
The War of 1812 was the second war between the United States and Great Britain within 30 years. When it was over, England grudgingly accepted that the United States was here to stay, and the U.S. acknowledged that it still needed the umbrella of England's global power -- at least for a while longer -- to make its own way in the world.
Causes of the War of 1812
The causes of the War of 1812 were many; few of them were valid. They included:
- Impressment: The Royal Navy, at war with either France or the United States -- or both -- for much of the time between 1775 and 1812, suffered a manpower shortage in the first decade of the 19th Century. As such, British ships often stopped American merchant ships, kidnapped American sailors, and forced them into British service. While the U.S. would use this practice as a pretense for war, impressment had reached its highpoint by 1808. It had virtually ended by 1812.
- Neutral Rights: The United States insisted on trading with both England and France, but of course those two countries were at war with each other. Each correctly thought American trade was simply helping its enemy, and both found ways to hinder or halt American shipping. President James Madison would use the violation of neutral rights as another reason to declare war on Britain. Ironically, Parliament voted to respect American neutral trade rights just before they learned the U.S. had declared war on Great Britain.
- Native American Agitation: In 1807, Shawnee leader Tecumseh attempted to form a coalition of Native American nations to halt further spread of American settlers. Future president William Henry Harrison stopped Tecumseh's plan at the Battle of Tippecanoe Creek. While the uprising was homegrown, Americans suspected British troops around the Great Lakes instigated it.
- Westward Expansion: This reason has merit. Many Americans, especially Democrat-Republicans in the Great Lakes region, wanted part of Canada. Of course, Great Britain controlled it and was not going to give it away. Warfare was the only way the U.S. could get a chunk of Canada.
The War In Brief
The war came in two phases, 1812-1813, and 1814. Because Great Britain was fully occupied fighting Napoleon's French armies during the first phase, it could commit little experienced forces to the American war. That was lucky for the Americans. With no cohesive goal and no method of coordinating forces, American armies could not decisively beat even mediocre British armies. While U.S. warships had some successes at sea and on Lake Erie, phase one was at best a draw.
By 1814, coalition troops in Europe had Napoleon temporarily contained and the British could concentrate on the United States. British commanders crafted a three-pronged attack that intended to severe New England (where Federalists opposed the war) from the rest of the United States by occupying the Hudson River Valley and New York; seize the capital of Washington D.C.; and close the Mississippi River by capturing New Orleans.
The plan looked good on paper, but it failed in execution. In August, British troops did capture Washington (and burned the White House), but they failed to capture nearby Baltimore and the force's position became untenable. In September, an American navy on Lake Champlain in the Battle of Plattsburg then turned back the northern invasion force.
Treaty of Ghent
Even as British troops were trying to occupy Washington, British and American diplomats were meeting in Ghent, Belgium, in an attempt to negotiate a peace. The British, of course, hoped the successful conclusion of their three-pronged strategy would give them leverage in the talks. When word arrived of the retreat from Washington and the defeat at Plattsburg, however, war-weary Britain sought a simple end to the war.
Negotiators, which included future American president John Quincy Adams (son of second president John Adams) and future presidential contender Henry Clay, soon crafted a close to the war. Provisions included:
- An end of hostilities.
- Exchange of prisoners of war.
- Return of any land occupied by either belligerent.
- Settlement of any U.S.-British border disputes.
- U.S. and Great Britain would work to end the slave trade.
The treaty made no mention of impressments or neutral trade rights.
Significance
The Treaty of Ghent gets forgotten, but it was a milestone in American foreign policy, more for what the treaty did not say rather than what it said. Inherent in the treaty is the tacit realization that the two nations could work together to the benefit of both. Great Britain had to acknowledge that it was not strong enough to fight two global wars and maintain an empire at at the same time. The United States had to acknowledge that it could not repel even a diminished, distracted invader.
But the two could effectively work together. They allude to that notion in the clause about fighting the Atlantic slave trade, although little came of that.
The U.S. and Great Britain quickly enter the "Era of Good Feelings" in which they finalized the U.S.-Canadian border and entered into the joint occupation of the Oregon Territory. Most famously the U.S. issued the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, which declared the Western Hemisphere closed to post-colonial European powers (except Great Britain), and tacitly used the Royal Navy to enforce it.
For a document that supposedly maintained the "status quo," the Treaty of Ghent changed much. It made an excellent Christmas present for the U.S. and Great Britain.
