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200 years ago yesterday, the United States Senate declared war on Great Britain. This started what we now know as the War of 1812. We Americans don't remember much of it, largely because, as I discussed here and here, the war from the US point of view was a disaster.
Basically, for those not clicking through, the Republican Party (which became the modern Democratic Party) pushed the war through on a party-line vote, hoping to annex Canada to the United States. They thought, as Thomas Jefferson put it, that conquering Canada would "merely be a matter of marching." They thought wrong.
Although some in the US bill the war as the "second war of US independence," really it's the first war of Canadian independence. This is why Canada is spending $28 million to commemorate it.
Basically, for those not clicking through, the Republican Party (which became the modern Democratic Party) pushed the war through on a party-line vote, hoping to annex Canada to the United States. They thought, as Thomas Jefferson put it, that conquering Canada would "merely be a matter of marching." They thought wrong.
Although some in the US bill the war as the "second war of US independence," really it's the first war of Canadian independence. This is why Canada is spending $28 million to commemorate it.
