User:John Stephenson/sandbox

At sea, the powerful Royal Navy blockaded much of the coastline, though it was allowing substantial exports from New England, which traded with Britain and Canada in defiance of American laws. The blockade devastated American agricultural exports, but it helped stimulate local factories that replaced goods previously imported. The American strategy of using small gunboats to defend ports was a fiasco, as the British raided the coast at will. The most famous episode was a series of British raids on the shores of Chesapeake Bay, including an attack on Washington, D.C. that resulted in the British burning of the White House, the Capitol, the Navy Yard, and other public buildings, later called the "Burning of Washington." The British power at sea was sufficient to allow the Royal Navy to levy "contributions" on bayside towns in return for not burning them to the ground. The Americans were more successful in ship-to-ship actions, and built several fast frigates in its shipyard at Sackets Harbor, New York. They sent out several hundred privateers to attack British merchant ships; British commercial interests were damaged, especially in the West Indies.

The decisive use of naval power came on the Great Lakes and depended on a contest of building ships. In 1813, the Americans won control of Lake Erie and cut off British and Native American forces to the west from their supplies. Thus, the Americans gained one of their main objectives by breaking a confederation of tribes. Tecumseh, the leader of the tribal confederation, was killed at the Battle of the Thames. While some Natives continued to fight alongside British troops, they subsequently did so only as individual tribes or groups of warriors, and where they were directly supplied and armed by British agents. Control of Lake Ontario changed hands several times, with neither side able or willing to take advantage of the temporary superiority. The Americans ultimately gained control of Lake Champlain, and naval victory there forced a large invading British army to turn back in 1814.

Once Britain defeated France in 1814, it ended the trade restrictions and impressment of American sailors, thus removing another cause of the war. Great Britain and the United States agreed to a peace that left the prewar boundaries intact.

After two years of warfare, the major causes of the war had disappeared. Neither side had a reason to continue or a chance of gaining a decisive success that would compel their opponents to cede territory or advantageous peace terms. As a result of this stalemate, the two countries signed the Treaty of Ghent on December 24, 1814. News of the peace treaty took two months to reach the U.S., during which fighting continued. In this interim, the Americans defeated a British invasion army in the Battle of New Orleans, with American forces' sustaining 71 casualties compared with 2,000 British. The British went on to capture Fort Bowyer only to learn the next day of the war's end.

The war had the effect of uniting the populations within each country. Canadians celebrated the war as a victory because they avoided conquest. Americans celebrated victory personified in Andrew Jackson. He was the hero of the defence of New Orleans, and in 1828, was elected the 7th President of the United States.