Painting of one of the battles during the War of 1812

Clash of the Britons

Scott Anderson

On June 18, 1812, the U.S. formally declared war against Great Britain. It was the first and only time our southern neighbour has taken up arms against Canada (or what would become Canada). Two hundred years later, Scott Anderson spoke to Jan Noel, a history prof at U of T Mississauga, about the war’s impact.

A one-minute refresher, please. What was the War of 1812 about?
One of the main causes of the war was the British impressment of American sailors. The British claimed that men who had immigrated to the United States were still British subjects, and they had begun forcibly recruiting these former subjects into the Royal Navy to help fight the Napoleonic wars. There was also a lot of conflict over what the Americans thought was British encouragement of aboriginal attacks on American settlers. When the war ended there was no resounding victor, and no territory changed hands.

Did the war have a lasting impact on the relationship between Canada and the U.S.?
Not long after the war ended, there was a boundary settlement along the 49th parallel, but apart from that it’s hard to trace lasting effects. U of T historian J.M.S. Careless wrote an article around the time of Canada’s centennial celebrations, in which he affirmed that this war was the beginning of the American population in Upper Canada developing a distinct identity. There’s nothing like having homesteads burned to give people a sense of solidarity.

Read the full interview in the Autumn 2012 issue of the U of T Magazine.