4.4 America on the World Stage

Barbary Pirates

• pirates from Barbary states on the North African Coast

• fighting for 4 years with no decisive victory

• Jefferson gained respect for the U.S. and protected U.S. vessels in the Mediterranean

Napoleonic wars vs. U.S. neutrality

• Britain and France seized ships and cargo of neutral nations

• British impressment of U.S. sailors into the British navy

• Chesapeake-Leopard Affair (1807) - British warship Leopard fired on U.S. warship Chesapeake, aroused American anger

• Jefferson passed the Embargo Act (1807) - prohibited American merchant ships from sailing to other countries’ ports, trying to place economic pressure on Britain

  • Britain substituted U.S. with South America

  • U.S. faced depression and a movement by New England to secede

  • repealed 1809

Madison’s foreign policy

• Nonintercourse Act of 1809 - provided that Americans could now trade with all nations except Britain and France

• Macon’s Bill No. 2 - restored trade with Britain and France as long as they respected America’s neutral rights at sea, promised to prohibit trade with the foe of the nation who obeyed the bill

  • Napoleon promised to revoke degrees violating U.S. neutral rights, Madison embargoed trade with Britain

  • France continued seizing American merchant ships

causes of the War of 1812

• free seas and trade - neutral rights not respected, impressment

• frontier pressures - U.S. wanted Native American, British, and Spanish land

  • Tecumseh and Prophet - Shawnee brothers who attempted to unite tribes east of the Mississippi to defend lands from further encroachment

  • Battle of Tippecanoe (1811) - General William Henry Harrison destroys Shawnee headquarters, ending hope for Native American confederacy

  • Americans blamed Britain for inciting rebellion

• war hawks - Democratic Republicans led by Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun - eager for war to defend American honor, gain Canada, and crush Natives

• congress declares war 1812, Madison elected same year

opposition to war

• New England merchants - commercial interests and profit from European War after Embargo Act repeal

• Federalists - saw war as a Democratic Republican plot to take Canada and Florida and increase voting strength

• Quids - old Democratic Republican ideals, argued that the war violates classic Democratic Republican commitment to limit federal power and maintain peace

military defeats

• Madison’s strategy was based on Napoleon’s continued success in Europe and a U.S. land campaign against Canada

• Canada invasion failed

U.S. naval victories

• Old Ironsides - nickname or the U.S. Constitution warship, raised morale by sinking British ship of the coast of Nova Scotia

• British blockaded U.S. coast

• Battle of Lake Erie (1813) - American Captain Oliver Hazard Perry declared victory

• Battle of the Thames (1813) - victory near Detroit led by William Henry Harrison, Tecumseh killed

• Battle of Lake Champlain (1814) - ships commanded by Thomas MacDonough defeat a British fleet, forcing British to retreat and abandon plan to invade New York and New England

Chesapeake campaign

• Napoleon defeated → British increase forces in North America

• marched through D.C., set fire to White House, capitol, other government buildings

• attempted to take Baltimore, Fort McHenry held out after night’s bombardment

  • The Star Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key

Southern campaign

• U.S. southern troops commanded by General Andrew Jackson

• Battle of Horseshoe Bend (1814) - Jackson ended power of the Creek nation, important British ally (new land)

• The Battle of New Orleans (1815) - victory over British trying to control Mississippi River, unaware of Treaty of Ghent already signed

Treaty of Ghent

• halted fighting, returned all conquered territory to the state of before the war, recognized prewar border between U.S. and Canada

• stalemate - no British concessions about impressment, blockades, recognized no possibility of decisive victory

Hartford Convention

• New England states angry with war proposed Constitutional amendment that would require 2/3 vote of both houses to declare war to limit growing Democratic Republicans

• radicals threatened secession as a last resort

• Jackson’s victory at New Orleans and the Treaty of Ghent dissolved criticism of war, painting Federalists as unpatriotic

consequences of the War of 1812

• none of original aims reached

• U.S. gained respect from other nations after surviving 2 wars with Great Britain

• U.S. accepted that Canada was part of the British empire

• Federalist party decline

• New England nullification and secession set precedent for Confederacy

• Native Americans forced to surrender land

• U.S. moved to industrial self-sufficiency, building factories in response to naval blockade

• war heroes became new generation of political leaders

• increased nationalism and hope for U.S. future

Monroe and foreign affairs

• more nationalistic, aggressive approach with foreign affairs

• fleet sent under Stephen Decatur to force free use of the Mediterranean (1815)

• Rush-Bagot Agreement (1817) - major disarmament pact strictly limiting naval armament on the Great Lakes, eventual border fortifications

• Treaty of 1818

  • agreed to shared fishing rights off coast of Newfoundland

  • joint occupation of Oregon Territory for 10 years

  • set northern limits of Louisiana Territory

acquiring Florida

• Monroe commissioned Jackson to stop and pursue raiders in Florida

• Jackson led a force of militia into Florida, destroying villages and hanging people

• Monroe convinced to support Jackson by John Quincy Adams

• Florida Purchase Treaty/Adams-Onis Treaty - Florida and Oregon territory sold to U.S., U.S. gives up claims on Texas

Monroe Doctrine

declared that neither of the American continents should be further colonized or interfered with by European countries