Creating Cultural Difference: The Military, Political and Cultural Legacy of the Anglo-American War of 1812–1815

Abstract

The Anglo-American War of 1812 was fought between two literate populations sharing a common language. It began in mid-1812, and although ended by a peace treaty signed on 24 December 1814, active operations continued until the treaty had been ratified in Washington, and news had reached the various theatres, including the Indian Ocean. While the British treated it as a mere sideshow to the Napoleonic conflict, to be quickly forgotten, for Americans it was the defining event of an era, one that generated numerous deeply partisan accounts to sustain domestic agendas long after the origins, aims and outcomes of the conflict had faded from memory. Above all, the Americans created the illusion of victory in a ‘Second War of Independence’ to sustain the Republican Party. This mythology would shape the development of divergent sectional and national cultures in the era before the Civil War.