Editing Canada–United States relations (section)

=== War of 1812 (1812-1815) ===
{{main|War of 1812}}
The [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|Treaty of Paris]] of 1783, which ended the [[American Revolutionary War]], called for British forces to vacate all their forts south of the [[Great Lakes]] border. Britain refused to do so, citing the failure of the newly independent [[United States]] to provide financial restitution for Loyalists who had lost property in the war. The [[Jay Treaty]] in 1795 with Great Britain resolved that lingering issue and the British departed the forts. [[Thomas Jefferson]] saw the nearby British presence as a threat to the [[United States]], and so he opposed the [[Jay Treaty]], and it became one of the major political issues in the United States at the time.<ref>Bradford Perkins, ''The First Rapprochement: England and the United States, 1795–1805'' (1955)</ref> Thousands of Americans immigrated to Upper Canada (Ontario) from 1785 to 1812 to obtain cheaper land and better tax rates prevalent in that province; despite expectations that they would be loyal to the U.S. if a war broke out, in the event they were largely non-political.<ref>{{cite book|first=George A.|last=Rawlyk|title=The Canada Fire: Radical Evangelicalism in British North America, 1775–1812|url=https://archive.org/details/canadafire0000unse|url-access=registration|year=1994|publisher=McGill-Queen's Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/canadafire0000unse/page/122 122]|access-date=November 6, 2015|isbn=9780773512214}}</ref>
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| footer = The United States Declaration of War against the British (left) and Governor [[Issac Brock]]'s proclamation issued in response to it in the [[Upper Canada|Province of Upper Canada]] (right)
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Tensions mounted again after 1805, erupting into the [[War of 1812]] (1812–1815), when the [[United States Congress]], approved/signed by the fourth [[President of the United States|President]] [[James Madison]] (1751–1836, served 1809–1817), declared war in June 1812 on Britain. The Americans were angered by British harassment of U.S. ships on the high seas and [[Impressment|seizure of 6,000 sailors from American ships]], severe restrictions against neutral American trade with [[First French Empire|France]], and British support for hostile [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] tribes in [[Ohio]] and territories the U.S. had gained in 1783. American "honor" was an implicit issue. While the Americans could not hope to defeat the [[Royal Navy]] and control the seas, they could call on an army much larger than the British garrison in Canada, and so a land invasion of Canada was proposed as the most advantageous means of attacking the British Empire. Americans on the western frontier also hoped an invasion would bring an end to British support of [[American Indians in the United States|Native American]] resistance to [[Westward expansion of the United States|American expansion]], typified by [[Tecumseh]]'s coalition of tribes.<ref>Alan Taylor, ''The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies'' (2010).</ref> Americans may also have wanted to acquire Canada.{{sfn|Stagg|2012|pp=5–6}}<ref>George F. G. Stanley, ''War of 1812: The Land Operations'' (1983), p. 32</ref><ref>David Heidler, Jeanne T. Heidler, ''The War of 1812'' (2004), p. 4</ref>{{sfn|Tucker|2011|p=236}}{{sfn|Nugent|2008|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=_zDQlAp4T4wC&pg=PA73 73], 75}}
[[File:Battle of Queenston Heights, Artist Unknown.jpg|thumb|The [[Battle of Queenston Heights]] by eyewitness James B. Dennis, depicts the American landing on October 13, 1812]]
Once war broke out, the American strategy was to seize Canada. There was some hope that settlers in western Canada—most of them recent immigrants from the U.S.—would welcome the chance to overthrow their British rulers. However, the American invasions were defeated primarily by British regulars with support from Native Americans and [[Upper Canada]] militia. Aided by the large Royal Navy, a series of British raids on the American coast were highly successful, culminating with an [[Burning of Washington|attack on Washington]] that resulted in the British burning of the [[White House]], [[United States Capitol|the Capitol]], and other public buildings. At the end of the war, Britain's American Indian allies had largely been defeated, and the Americans controlled a strip of Western Ontario centered on [[Amherstburg|Fort Malden]]. However, Britain held much of [[Maine]], and, with the support of their remaining American Indian allies, huge areas of the Old Northwest, including [[Wisconsin]] and much of [[Michigan]] and [[Illinois]]. With the surrender of Napoleon in 1814, Britain ended naval policies that angered Americans; with the defeat of the Indian tribes, the threat to American expansion was ended. The upshot was both the United States and Canada asserted their sovereignty, Canada remained under British rule, and London and Washington had nothing more to fight over. The war was ended by the [[Treaty of Ghent]], which took effect in February 1815.<ref>Mark Zuehlke, ''For Honour's Sake: The War of 1812 and the Brokering of an Uneasy Peace'' (2007) is a [[Canadians|Canadian]] perspective.</ref> A series of postwar agreements further stabilized peaceful relations along the Canada–US border. Canada reduced American immigration for fear of undue American influence and built up the [[Anglican Church of Canada]] as a counterweight to the largely American [[Baptists|Baptist]] and [[Methodism|Methodist]] churches.<ref>W.L. Morton, ''The Kingdom of Canada'' (1969) ch 12</ref>

In later years, Anglophone Canadians, especially in Ontario, viewed the War of 1812 as a heroic and successful resistance against invasion and as a victory that defined them as a people. The myth that the Canadian militia had defeated the invasion almost single-handed, known logically as the "militia myth", became highly prevalent after the war,<ref name="Cleves Eustace Gilje Hale 2012 pp. 520–555">{{cite journal | last1=Cleves | first1=Rachel Hope | last2=Eustace | first2=Nicole | last3=Gilje | first3=Paul | last4=Hale | first4=Matthew Rainbow | last5=Morgan | first5=Cecilia | last6=Opal | first6=Jason M. | last7=Peskin | first7=Lawrence A. | last8=Taylor | first8=Alan | title=Interchange: The War of 1812 | journal=The Journal of American History | publisher=[Oxford University Press, Organization of American Historians] | volume=99 | issue=2 | year=2012 | issn=0021-8723| jstor=44306807 | pages=520–555 | doi=10.1093/jahist/jas236 | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/44306807 | access-date=Apr 4, 2024}}</ref> having been propounded by [[John Strachan]], [[Toronto|Anglican Bishop of York]].<ref name="Wood 2010 p. ">{{cite book | last=Wood | first=James A. | title=Militia Myths | publisher=UBC Press | publication-place=Vancouver | date=2010 | isbn=978-0-7748-1765-3 | oclc=473375581 |url=https://www.ubcpress.ca/asset/9466/1/9780774817653.pdf| page=12}}</ref>