James Madison

Birth-Death: (1751 - 1836 ) Term: (1809-1817 )

The United States was in a war with Great Britain over the impressment of sailors. The war also had a hidden agenda - the territorial expansion of the United States into Canada. Although the war did not result in any gains for the U.S., the British finally recognized the United States as a world power.

Foreign Events of James Madison

    The war of 1812 was a war that both sides did not want to enter. The center of support in the United States came from the heartland of Kentucky and Tennessee, not from the maritime states of New England, even though the stated objectives of the war were to stop Great Britain from the impressment of American sailors into the British navy. The hidden objective was expansion into Canada, and the first battles of the war occurred at the US-Canada border. The outcome was indecisive until the British attacked Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

    Washington, D.C. was burned to the ground, while the vigorous bombardment at Fort McHenry inspired Francis Scott Key to write the words of the first stanza of the Star Spangled Banner. The war was indecisive, and the Treaty of Ghent, when signed in 1816, contained no indemnities, no penalties, and no territorial adjustments. Everything was returned to the state it was in before the war. The only victory in this war went to the United States: the Treaty of Ghent convinced Europe that the United States had established itself as a permanent nation.