Re-Learning History

I have been reading a book called, 1812, War With America, by Jon Latimer. It is a good scholarly investigation into a war that is conspicuously ignored in American history. To the victors of a war, go the rights to spin the history the way they want it. The American revolution against Britain certainly had it "righteous" spin by historians. But the war of 1812, that one is hard to justify. At its core were values of bitterness against Britain, an unvarnished lust for Canada, and pride.

America provoked the war as a land grab. In its pride, it thought it would be a "promenade to Montreal." The Good Book says that "pride goes before a fall," and it certainly proved true in this case. Instead of an easy walk to Montreal, the war provoked the Indian Wars in the then known Western territories. America had bitten off more than it could chew. For the first year of the war, it basically spelled the loss of a lot of land by America. Detroit and Michilimackinac were in Canadian control. The successful response to aggression by America even found the White House, the seat of American government, in flames.

Andrew Jackson survived the war and used it to successfully propel him into a successful political career. He claimed to have killed the mighty Shawnee Chief, Tecumseh. There never was any proof of the claim, but it made good fuel for his bid to the presidency. The First Nations peoples like the Shawnee and the Creeks were vanquished in the war. The land of Ohio, Kentucky and Missouri were open for expansion for the myth of Manifest Destiny.

The story has naval battles for control of the Great Lakes. The British doctrine for naval battle was volume of fire. They liked a lot of guns, (cannons), and were skilled in rapid firing. The Americans believed that only hits count. Like their love of the accurate flintlock rifle, so they employed naval guns that could out-reach the British guns. They didn't shoot as fast as the British, but they soon dominated the Great Lakes being able to blast anyone out of the way at distance.

Maybe I am beginning to understand how Canadians view their neighbors south of the long undefended border. It isn't exactly like the view from the American side.

"The only really decisive and lasting result of the War of 1812 was the complete British victory in Canada that secured Canadian independence. It would reverberate through history to 1914 and again to 1939, when, in Britain's darkest hours of need, Canada stood proudly by its side." (p.408)