
The Royal Navy operated "press gangs", which were legally empowered to conscript any British citizen into naval service, even if they happened to be found on a foreign ship. Meanwhile, the Royal Navy began waylaying American ships to haul away individuals who (they alleged) were British deserters. The ascension of the pro-French Thomas Jefferson to the presidency in 1801 caused trade and diplomatic relations between the United States and Great Britain to deteriorate.

The war was also responsible for some dramatic episodes in American history like the burning of Washington DC and the penning of the Star Spangled Banner. Although the war had some roots in the dispute over Britain's impressment of American sailors for the blockade of France, the most significant cause of war was the UK's supply of arms to the various Native American tribes who were fighting against the United States. Depending on who's looking at it, the conflict was either a backwater sideshow of the Napoleonic Wars or a full war in its own right.

The War of 1812 was a military conflict between the United States and the United Kingdom which lasted from 1812 to 1815, hence the name. Henry Goulburn, one of the British negotiators at Ghent. “ ”Till I came here, I had no idea of the fixed determination which there is in the heart of every American to extirpate the Indians and appropriate their territory.
