Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles_Main IMO the war of 1812 was the real end of the revolution started years before. It was not until after the war of 1812 that Britain finally started treating us like a Nation and not a lost possession. |
Agreed but only to some extent.
Great Britian's basic contempt for any nation not actually great was pretty evident
Background
The British delegation was composed of the minor diplomats
William Adams,
James Lord Gambier, and
Henry Goulburn. Meetings were often delayed a week or more as the British diplomats lacked the power to make direct negotiations and waited for orders from London while the American delegation, composed of
John Quincy Adams,
James A. Bayard, Sr.,
Henry Clay,
Albert Gallatin, and junior member
Jonathan Russell, had full authority to negotiate.
The United States had been unsuccessful in its invasions of
Lower and
Upper Canada, while Britain had not made any significant gains, except for the
burning of Washington D.C., with its retaliatory raids on American soil.
War Hawks in Congress wanted to conquer Canada and Florida.<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-0>
[1]</SUP>
[edit] The agreement
The treaty released all prisoners and restored all war lands and boats, that is, returned to America approximately 10,000,000 acres (40,000 km²) of territory near Lakes
Superior and
Michigan, in
Maine, and on the
Pacific coast.<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-1>
[2]</SUP> The treaty made no major changes to the pre-war situation, but did make a few promises. Britain promised to return captured slaves, but instead a few years later paid the United States £250,000 for them.<SUP class="noprint Template-Fact">[
citation needed]</SUP> The British proposal to create an Indian buffer zone in Ohio and Michigan collapsed after the Indian coalition fell apart. The weak guarantees regarding American treatment of the Indians in article IX were ignored.