Contemporary historians cite this sequence of events:
After the British defeated the French in the French and Indian War The French and Indian War was a nine-year conflict (1754-1763) in North America and was one of the conflict theatres of the Seven Years' War. The conflict was between Britain and its colonies on one side and France on the other. The war soon spread to Europe itself and Britain and France continued battling. Native Americans fought for both sides but primarily with the French. The major battles include French victories at Fort William Henry, Fort Ticonderoga and against the Braddock Expedition and British victories at Louisburg, Fort Niagara, Fort Duquesne and at the Plains of Abraham outside of Quebec City, in which James Wolfe defeated a French garrison led by Louis-Joseph de Montcalm.
After the British defeated the French in the French and Indian War The French and Indian War was a nine-year conflict (1754-1763) in North America and was one of the conflict theatres of the Seven Years' War. The conflict was between Britain and its colonies on one side and France on the other. The war soon spread to Europe itself and Britain and France continued battling. Native Americans fought for both sides but primarily with the French. The major battles include French victories at Fort William Henry, Fort Ticonderoga and against the Braddock Expedition and British victories at Louisburg, Fort Niagara, Fort Duquesne and at the Plains of Abraham outside of Quebec City, in which James Wolfe defeated a French garrison led by Louis-Joseph de Montcalm.
In 1763, the British began to settle Westward into North America.
Later that year, Chief Pontiac of the Ottawa organized native resistance among the Deleware (Lenape), Seneca, Chippewa, Miami, Potawatomi, and Huron. This is Pontiac's Rebellion.
Following a series of bloody battles (Bloody Run, Bushy Run, and the loss of eight British forts), came the Proclamation of 1763. To make peace with the Indians, this Royal proclamation prohibited Westward settlement. Colonial reaction to this proclamation was very negative. This proclamation was a significant cause of the American Revolution.
First the colonies, then the newly-formed United States turned Eastward as the seeds of the American Revolution began (1766) and ended (1783).
After the American Revolution, Britain wanted to keep an "Indian Buffer" between Canada and the new United States. To do this, Britain allied itself with the Native North American Indians.
In 1807, the HMS Leopard fired on and overhauled the USS Chesapeake, and impressed four US Navy seamen. Though the incident itself was minor, the implied attitude of the Royal Navy towards the USA - that it was independent only in name, and worthy of no esteem - outraged the American public.
In the Election of 1810, the interior frontier states elected the "Warhawks". The Warhawks believed in the nation's Manifest Destiny, and wanted to expand Westward. None of the Warhawks were from the seaboard states – this fact is inconsistent with the idea that the War of 1812 was about Maritime law.
In 1811, William Henry Harrison attacked the Shawnees in the Battle of Tippecanoe.
In the U.S. presidential election, 1812, Madison justified the war of 1812 as a reaction to Britain's policies against American shipping (on June 1 that year he asked the United States Congress to declare war on the United Kingdom). This justification was needed to convince the coastal states that the war was necessary and important. The frontier states needed no justification. This is the first major war of the new country, and the first time that a war needed "justification" presented to its citizens. Ironically, as the textbook history below indicates, this first war of the new nation was also very unpopular.
Several days after Madison's war message to Congress, the Senate voted for war, 19 to 13, reflecting this unpopularity.
What is not in most history books is the role that Native North Americans played in the war of 1812. Five of the seven major land battles were fought against primarily Native American forces in the interior of the continent.
At the end of the war, the outcome was that Britain gave up its alliances with the Indian nations, in exchange for the US leaving Canada alone. Although, "no territory was won or lost", the War of 1812 signalled the end of Native North American-European alliances. This resulted in Western settlement becoming a "mopping up" operation. The US could now settle the West, unafraid of European alliances. Although thousands of lives were lost in later US-Indian wars, the outcomes of these conflicts were never in doubt.
