Topic 4.4: America on the World Stage

war hawks

• a group of new, young Democratic-Republicans brought by a congressional election in 1810 to Congress

• known for their eagerness for war with Britain & gained significant influence in the House of Representatives

• argued that was with Britain would be the only way to defend American honor, gain Canada, and destroy American Indian resistance on the frontier

Henry Clay

• led the war hawk members of Congress who argued for war with Britain

John C. Calhoun

• from South Carolina who led the war hawk members of Congress with Henry Clay

“Quids”

• “Old” Democratic Republicans who opposed the war and criticized it because it violated the classic Democratic-Republican commitment to limited federal power and to the maintenance of peace

Hartford Convention

• a convention held at Hartford, Connecticut to consider the arguments by the radical Federalists in New England who urged that the Constitution be amended

• a number of proposals were adopted, one of them calling for a two-thirds vote of both houses for any future declaration of war

Tecumseh

• a warrior who attempted to unite all of the tribes east of the Mississippi river — his efforts to form an Indian confederacy were ended after General William Henry Harrison destroyed the Shawnee headquarters

Prophet

• a religious leader who aided Tecumseh’s efforts to unite all of the tribes east of the Mississippi River

William Henry Harrison

• the governor of the Indiana Territory, persuaded by white settlers to take aggressive action, and so, in the Battle of Tippecanoe, he destroyed the Shawnee headquarters

Battle of Tippecanoe

• where General William Henry Harrison destroyed the Shawnee headquarters, ending Tecumseh’s efforts to form an Indian confederacy

Napoleon Bonaparte

• announced his intention of revoking the decrees that violated U.S. neutral rights — led to the passage of Macon’s Bill No.2

Barbary pirates

• challenged Jefferson’s foreign policy, seizing U.S. merchant ships

neutrality

• avoiding war, rejecting permanent alliances

• Jefferson sought to maintain neutrality

impressment

• forcibly recruiting individuals into naval service, often by seizing them from American merchant ships

Chesapeake-Leopard affair

• the British Warship Leopard fired on the U.S. warship Chesapeake, where three Americans were killed and four others were taken captive and impressed into the British navy

• aroused American anger and almost led to war but Jefferson resorted to diplomacy

Embargo Act (1807)

• a measure prohibiting American merchant ships from sailing to any foreign port in hopes that Britain would stop violating the rights of neutral nations

• the embargo backfired because it brought greater economic hardship to the U.S. and Britain easily substituted supplies from South America for U.S. goods

James Madison

• presidency was dominated by the same European problems — attempted a combination of diplomacy and economic pressure to deal with the Napoleonic wars, but unlike Jefferson, he finally consented to take the U.S. into war

Nonintercourse Act (1809)

• provided that Americans could now trade with all nations except Britain and France

• introduced in hopes to end economic hardship while maintaining as a neutral nation

Macon’s Bill No.2

• introduced by Nathaniel Macon, which restored U.S. trade with Britain and France

• provided that if either Britain or France formally agreed to respect U.S. neutral rights at sea, then the U.S. would prohibit trade with that nation’s foe

War of 1812

• caused by the continued violation of U.S. neutral rights at sea and troubles with the British on the western frontier

“Old Ironsides”

• the U.S. warship Constitution, raised American morale by defeating and sinking a British ship off the cost of Nova Scotia

Battle of Lake Erie

• a victory for the U.S., and leading the way for General William Henry Harrison’s victory at the Battle of the Thames

Oliver Hazard Perry

• declared the Battle of Lake Erie a victory with, “We have met the enemy and they are ours.”

Battle of the Thames

• a battle near Detroit where Tecumseh was killed

Thomas Macdonough

• commanded ships that defeated a British fleet on Lake Champlain in 1814, causing the British to retreat and abandon their plan to invade New York and New England

Battle of Lake Champlain

• ended in a victory for the U.S. as the British had to retreat and abandon their plans to invade New York and New England

Andrew Jackson

• commanded U.S. troops in the South, and led the victory of the Battle of Horseshoe Bend

Battle of Horseshoe Bend

• resulted in a victory for the U.S. as Jackson ended the power of an important British ally, the Creek nation and also eliminated the Indians, opening lands to white settlers

Creek nation

• an important British ally defeated in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend

Battle of New Orleans

• fought on January 8, 1815, when the British, in an effort to control the Mississippi River, was halted at New Orleans by Jackson

Treaty of Ghent (1814)

• the treaty ending the War of 1812, resulting in a stalemate with no gain for either side

Stephen Decatur

• sent a fleet in 1815 to force the rulers of North Africa to allow American shipping the use of the Mediterranean

Rush-Bagot Agreement (1817)

• strictly limited naval armament on the great Lakes

Treaty of 1818

• provided for (1) shared fishing rights off the coast of Newfoundland; (2) joint occupation of the Oregon Territory for ten years; (3) the setting of the northern limits of the Louisiana Territory at the 49th parallel, establishing the western U.S. Canada boundary line

Florida Purchase Treaty (1819)

• when Spain turned over all its possessions in Florida and its own claims in the Oregon Territory to the United States, to which the U.S. would agree to assume $5 million in claims against Spain and give up any U.S. territorial claims to the Spanish Province of Texas

• a.k.a Adams-Onis Treaty

Monroe Doctrine (1823)

• a U.S. foreign policy statement declaring that the Western Hemisphere was no longer open to European colonization and that any European interference in the Americas would be considered a hostile act by the United States. 

Francis Scott Key

• wrote “The Star Spangled Banner”