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During the War, the British blockade of American ports was orchestrated from Bermuda, and a squadron based in Bermuda was active in the Chesapeake from February 1813 until the end of the War, British forces briefly occupying Kent Island in 1813 and establishing a base on Tangier Island in 1814, where the Royal Navy recruited from among refugee ...
The violation of British neutral rights triggered an uproar in Britain. Britain sent 11,000 troops to Canada, and the British fleet was put on a war footing with plans to blockade New York City if war broke out. In addition, the British put an embargo on the export of saltpetre which the US needed to make gunpowder.
British financiers built and operated most of the blockade runners, spending hundreds of millions of pounds on them. They were staffed by sailors and officers on leave from the Royal Navy. When the U.S. Navy captured one of the fast blockade runners, it sold the ship and cargo as prize money for the American sailors, then released the crew.
Increased taxes, the British blockade, and the occupation of some of New England by enemy forces also agitated public opinion in the states. [299] At the Hartford Convention held between December 1814 and January 1815, Federalist delegates deprecated the war effort and sought more autonomy for the New England states.
The British Prime Minister Lord Shelburne now saw a chance to split the United States away from France and make the new country a valuable economic partner. [11] The United States would gain all of the area east of the Mississippi River, north of Florida, and south of Canada. The northern boundary would be almost the same as today.
British trade with the Confederacy was limited, with a trickle of cotton going to Britain and hundreds of thousands of munitions slipped in by numerous small blockade runners. [45] The Confederate strategy for securing independence was largely based on the hope of military intervention by Britain and France, but Confederate diplomacy proved inept.
Bickham, Troy, The Weight of Vengeance: The United States, The British Empire, and the War of 1812 (Oxford University Press, 2012) ISBN 978-0195391787; Burt, A. L. The United States, Great Britain, and British North America from the Revolution to the Establishment of Peace after the War of 1812. (1940) online edition
The British Empire declared the American colonies to be in a state of rebellion after the First Continental Congress and refused to recognize their Declaration of Independence. The blockade ended with the Treaty of Paris recognizing U.S. independence and ending the war. 1788–1790 Sweden Russia: Second Russo-Swedish War: 1793–1797 France