The exact number of Americans affected by impressment is difficult to ascertain-American newspapers on the eve of the war claimed that it was in excess of 6,000-and Great Britain and the United States were never able to resolve the dispute. Relations between the two countries reached breaking point on this issue in June 1807, when the frigate HMS Leopard fired on the USS Chesapeake inside American territorial waters in order to remove, and later execute, four of its crew. The United States defended its right to naturalize foreigners and rejected Britain's claim that it could legitimately practice impressment on the high seas. In order to man the Royal Navy, British naval officers impressed seamen from American vessels, claiming that they were either deserters from British service or British subjects, irrespective of whether they had been naturalized by the United States. The United States, endeavoring to market its own produce while also asserting the right to profit as an important neutral carrier in the Atlantic commercial system, was particularly hard hit. Throughout the wars between Revolutionary and Napoleonic France and Great Britain (1793вЂ“18вЂ“15), the belligerent powers of Europe repeatedly violated the maritime rights of neutral nations. Many Americans believed that England sought to humiliate the United States, limit its growth, and perhaps even impose a quasiвЂђcolonial status upon its former colonies. The Conflict resulted from the clash between American nationalism and the war Britain and its allies were waging against the empire of Napoleonic France.

The War of 1812 is often referred to as the United States's second war of independence because, like the Revolutionary War, it was fought against Great Britain.

War of 1812 pic