What were the causes of the 1812 war between the usa and the uk?

Question: What were the causes of the 1812 war between the usa and the uk!?
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Since 1793 Britain had been in a fight for it's very survival against Napoleon and France!. In 1803 Napoleon began to assemble a massive armada with which he intended to invade England!. Admiral Lord Nelson's stunning defeat of the combined French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar in October 1805 denied Napoleon command of the sea and he abandoned his invasion plans!. England was still at risk however, for as long as Napoleon was left unchecked!.

The Royal Navy was, at that time, the only force with which Britain could strike at Napoleon!. After Trafalgar the French and Spanish fleets never put to sea again!. So how do you fight with a Navy when your enemy stays in port!? Britain decided to place a naval blockade around Europe to deny Napoleon the means of waging war!.

This caused the first problem with the United States!. France was a major trading partner of the US and the US government complained loudly that Britain had no right to turn away US ships on the high seas!. (Easy to say when you're not at risk of invasion)!.

At that time, a British ship of the line required a crew of around 800 men!. The conditions were appalling and the pay poor!. British warships never docked in foreign ports for fear the crew would desert!. Desertion was however rife in the navy, and it was such a serious problem that huge efforts were made to prevent and to remedy it!.

Whenever a foreign ship (of any nationality) was stopped during the blockade, any crew who spoke English or otherwise appeared to be English were assumed to be deserters from the Navy, unless they could provide concrete proof that they were not!.

Almost all US ships stopped contained crew who had been born in England!. Most of the population of the US at that time had been born somewhere else!. "Citizenship papers" were believed by the Navy to be too easy to come by in America and were largely ignored!. Consequently many genuine American citizens were arrested and impressed into the Royal Navy!. At the same time huge numbers of genuine deserters were also returned to naval service!.

The impressment of Americans in to the Royal Navy was the last straw!. On top of what America considered an unfair restriction of her trade the impressment issue finally caused Congress to declare war!.

It's an unfortunate fact of war that innocent people are often affected!. Today America likes to call this "friendly fire", especially when it's British soldiers that are killed by Americans!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Lingering tensions from the American Revolution, an ongoing debate over Britain retaining forts on what many AMericans felt was their turf, the fact that Britain was in the habit of 'kidnapping' American sailors and forcing them into service aboard British ships, and a desire by many Americans to seize parts of Canada, those were the most often cited reasons but perhaps the easiest explanation is that many Americans simply felt that it was time to kick British ^ss!.

Peace// \\\-------------------------------------!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

The war had many causes, but at the center of the conflict was the United Kingdom’s ongoing war with Napoleon’s France!.
The British were engaged in a life-and-death war with Napoleon and did not wish to allow the Americans to trade with France, regardless of their theoretical neutral rights to do so!. As Horsman explains, "If possible, England wished to avoid war with America, but not to the extent of allowing her to hinder the British war effort against France!. Moreover!.!.!.a large section of influential British opinion, both in the government and in the country, thought that America presented a threat to British maritime supremacy!."The United States Merchant Marine had come close to doubling in between 1802 and 1810!. Interestingly, the largest trading partner was the United Kingdom: some 80% of all US cotton and 50% of all other US exports were to the United Kingdom!. The United States Merchant Marine was the largest neutral fleet in the world by a large margin!. The British public and press were very resentful of the growing mercantile and commercial competition!. The US view was that the UK was in violation of a neutral nation's right to trade with any nation they saw fit!.
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Key Events & Causes: War of 1812http://home!.earthlink!.net/~gfeldmeth/cha!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Britain still wanted to rule North America!. They kidnapped American seamen and forced them to serve on their warships, partly because they had already kidnapped and enslaved most of the able bodied men in England!.

They didn't want to give up the forts that they had on what was now American soil!. They wanted to control who the Americans traded with and they were still just angry that they had been defeated in the American Revolution!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Illegals, what else !?Www@QuestionHome@Com