In 1812, Americans held two distinctly different visions of their country. Some saw growing production, manufacturers, trade, and merchant ships traversing the globe, bringing a vast array of staple and luxury goods to commercial centers and riches to American captains living in cities like the capitals of Europe. Others saw a vast, agrarian paradise spreading from the Eastern Coast into the Western wilderness where innumerable American farmers and their families could be independent and equal, free of government impediments and corruption. 

These incompatible visions of America were held by two opposing political parties. The two halves of America also had incompatible views on the necessity of war that year. Only the Democratic-Republicans were anxious to march into Canada, seize Florida, and take all the Western land they could win or negotiate. 

Canada survived, but the indigenous peoples, despite their prodigious efforts to get a voice at the peace-treaty table, failed to preserve their cultures, as they foresaw would happen.  

You will learn about: 

• War hawks and neutrality  
• Declaration and reaction  
• The campaign of 1812 and 1813  
• 1814: War in the balance  
• Final conflict and peace  
• And much more! 

Discover how shifting political ideologies shaped the path forward to 1812 and beyond.