War Of 1812 DBQ

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After the U.S gained their independence form Britain, they faced the greatest obstacle that would threaten their independence. This was a second war fought against Great Britain called the War of 1812. The war was fought on land and on sea and lasted almost three years. There were many forces that led Americans to declare war on Britain in 1812. One of the main causes of the war was Great Britains's continued practice of impressment. The ocean was a common and affective way to transport good in order to trade with other nations. Every country has the right to use the ocean; but because Britain was causing America's rights to be restricted by capturing American ships and enslaving their seamen, it caused many problems between the two countries. Document 1 is a congressional report that describes Britain's violations of our right " to use the ocean, which is the common and scknowledged highway of nations, for the purposes of transporting, in their own vessels , the products of their own soil and the acquisitions of their own industry." The report calls Britain's impressment and seizure of ships is a …show more content…

After all, many believe that war with Britain would end the troubles Americans were having with Indians on the frontier. These critics might bring up that the British were arming and inciting the Native American Indians to attack American settlers. It It is true that the British supplied the Native Americans with weapons and incited them to fight Americans was a cause for the war of 1812. However, what these critics don't yet understand is that it wasn't the MAIN cause for the war of 1812. There were many minor causes that led Americans to declare war on Britain in 1812 such as the troubles with the Indians on the frontier ,but the main causes were the impressment of American soldiers and ships and expansion of United States into

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