"The USA Won the War of 1812" Topic

38% of you say the United States won.
28% say Canada won.
11% say the United Kingdom won.

TMP link

There was no such thing as "Canada " as it was a set of British colonies . So when you add Canada and the United Kingdom their total gives them 39% a figure which accurately reflects history

Don't see how anyone can say we won. During the course of the war we failed to accomplish any of our pre-war objectives and almost had the nation divided by succession. The Orders in Council had been rescinded before we declared war in case you were wondering.

21eRegt +1

The poll results make me question how much history TMP members actually know.

You are all wrong. The war was a draw overall, with neither side holding a significant part of the other's territory. The U.S. failed to achieve any of its war aims, but neither did Great Britain, which hoped to establish an Indian buffer state in the portion of the United States known as the Old Northwest (basically everything west of Pennsylvania, north of the Ohio River, south of the Great Lakes, and east of the Mississippi River). In that respect, the Indians were the big losers in the war.

Canada did benefit from the war politically, in that the conflict helped give the disparate peoples inhabiting the various provinces an incipient sense of national identity and pride in their part in the war. But without denigrating their valiant participation, there is no way Canadians could have prevailed on their own. It was basically British regulars who saved Canada for the Empire.

Agree with 21eRegt and Pan Mark. No objectives of the attack achieved because of the attack. Any ending of the British policies complained about were due to the end of the Napoleonic wars and had nothing to do with American actions. It seems that some members consider the Battle of New Orleans as winning the war. If it comes down to preventing an invading enemy from taking over your territory, then Britain won. If it comes down to who benefited most from the result, then Canada did as it united the people and resulted in greater independence from Britain.

Indeed. Winning a poll and being correct are completely different things :)

Attila- Yours is the answer most historians give. But
was "draw" an option in the poll?

Pan Marek,

If the poll did not have draw as an option, it should have. Most of the polls on this site are just so much drivel. My theory is that they are mainly for keeping the number of posts inflated to encourage advertisers to patronize the site.

Putting history aside for a moment, polling can be very subjective and manipulative. To 'win' a poll by 38% is hardly an affirmative of the truth.

Figures lie, and liars figure.

I remember reading once that Spain was the only real loser of the War of 1812 for what happened in Florida. Don't know enough about that to say if it's true or not.

Following the War the US was basically able to secure its internal territory from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico and from the east coast to the Mississippi. Within a little over a generation there was no longer a "frontier" east of the Mississippi and it was establishing itself on the west coast, giving the US control of the central portion of the North American. Yes this expansion was not free of conflict, but (other than a little business with a pig) US policy was not overly restricted by concerns for their northern border.

I remember reading once that Spain was the only real loser of the War of 1812…….

And I always heard that neither side won, but the Indians lost.

28% say Canada won.

Ahhh………What??

Gee, Britian was fighting for the right to turn other people's citizens into essentially slaves under British capitans in the royal navy. (impressment). After the war, they never tried that again against Americans. ….. The British wanted to take over the Louisiana territory as an India and British trading empire as well as controlling all American trade west of the mountains by controlling New Orleans. Nope. …… The British wanted to control the shipping for all trade…..Nope…….. The British wanted America to be a supplier of raw materials and a market for their manufactured goods. That changed over the next 20 years.