welcome back US history students after a brief hiatus the video lecture series is back and I'm sure you're all very excited the topic of today's video lecture is the war of 1812 the United States has fought only five declared wars in its history the war of 1812 was the first of them the war of 1812 does not get a lot of attention in American history in terms of scale the war was not that big compared to other conflicts throughout American history however it did have some important consequences in 1812 the United States Congress declared war on Great Britain only 31 years after the Battle of Yorktown there were a number of reasons that tension between the two countries was increasing first throughout the 1790s and early 1800s the United States was caught in the middle of this ongoing conflict between France and Britain if we traded with one the other one would get angry in the early part of the 1800s there are a number of incidents in which British naval vessels seized American ships and in some cases seized American sailors upon inspecting some American trading ships the British Navy claimed to have found a number of sailors that they accused of deserting the British Navy these sailors were impressed meaning they were forcibly taken and pressed into the service of the British Navy this practice outraged many Americans another issue that contributed to tension between Britain and the United States centered around conflict between American settlers and Native Americans in 1811 a Native American warrior named to come so let a rebellion against American settlers in the Indiana Territory during this rebellion American forces led by future President William Henry Harrison defeated to come PSA's forces at the Battle of Tippecanoe in the aftermath of this battle it was discovered that the Native Americans were using weapons manufactured and Great Britain this discovery led to the belief that the British were arming and encouraging Native American attacks on American settlers the calls for a declaration of war grew louder and in June of 1812 Congress did exactly that support for the war was mixed and it reflected regional differences those who were for the war were called war hawks most of the support for the war came from the south and the West many southerners saw the war as an opportunity to secure western territory and expand cotton production this would lead to an increase in slave states being added to the Union Westerners who wanted protection against Native American attacks also supported the war most of New England was dominated by the Federalist Party and they largely opposed the war war with Great Britain would disrupt trade with that country which would negatively impact New England merchants in 1814 representatives from several New England states met at the Harford convention during the convention many amendments to the Constitution were proposed and some even talked about New England seceding from the Union nothing but ideas came out of the Hartford Convention but it did demonstrate the growing sectionalism of the young nation there were no major battles during the war of 1812 and it sputtered to an end after the signing of the treaty of ghent in 1814 there is no territorial gain or loss and you can debate whether or not America won but still the war had a big psychological impact on the nation standing up to Great Britain for a second time contributed to a growing sense of American national identity or nationalism during the British bombing of Fort McHenry in Baltimore a young poet by the name of Francis Scott Key penned a few words that became our national anthem the star-spangled banner so there you have it the war of 1812 although not a very big war nevertheless had some big consequences until next time we'll see you [Music]