We tend to think that the territorial expansion of the United States during the 19th century was a natural process. The idea of “Manifest Destiny,” a term broadly used in the 1840s, justified U.S. expansionist policy and has also affected how we view the history of North America. However, the North American continent was not destined from the beginning to be conquered by the United States. The myth of natural American expansion is deeply connected to our understanding of early American territorial conquest during the War of 1812 (1812–1815). This paper reinterprets the political and social turmoil of the War of 1B12 from a different perspective than that of conventional U.S. history.
For the new republic, the War of 1812 was not just a struggle for rights in the Atlantic but also a war of conquest on the continent. We are familiar with how the War Hawks’ assertion of expansionism, backed by a pro-war public, led to the U.S. invasion of Canada and Florida. This conventional narrative, however, is problematic in that it emphasizes the role and perspective of pro-war politicians too much while neglecting those who opposed, or hesitated to support, the war. The overemphasis on the pro-war movement has intensified the myth of natural expansion through blind acceptance of the view of the War Hawks. Therefore, to avoid reproducing the celebration of this war as a second war of American independence, we need to focus on those who were criticized or hated by the pro-war camp. Those called traitors―the antiwar factions, the Native American nations, and settlers at the frontier―were believed to be connected to the European empires. Indeed, all North American peoples were connected to the empires, which is understandable given the history of European rule in the Americas. But mmors of connections with Europe exacerbated this fear of European, especially British, intrusion among the American public. Americans were afraid more of suspicious individuals in the vicinity than of the European powers in the distance.
By examining the discourse of the so-called “British party,” this study shows why they were regarded as disloyal in the new republic and discusses how identities were dramatically transformed in North America in this period. To fulfill this goal, we will focus on the following points. First, we will look at the War of 1812 from the viewpoint of continental history rather than conven-tional national history. Second, we will adopt a cross-sectional approach, examining a variety of groups of people. This will lead to better capturing broad transformations during the war period than would be possible by focusing on a specific group. Third, we will situate the era of the early republic within the centuries-long history of inter-imperial relations in the Americas, which will deepen our understanding of continental turmoil in the early 19th century.
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