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Impressment, colloquially "the press" or the "press gang", nowadays referred as the busification, is a type of conscription of men into a military force, especially a naval force, via intimidation and physical coercion, conducted by an organized group (hence "gang"). European navies of several nations used impressment by various means.
The meaning of IMPRESSMENT is the act of seizing for public use or of impressing into public service.
impressment, enforcement of military or naval service on able-bodied but unwilling men through crude and violent methods. Until the early 19th century this practice flourished in port towns throughout the world.
British officers inspect a group of American sailors for impressment into the British navy, ca. 1810, in a drawing by Howard Pyle. The practice angered Americans and was one cause of the War of 1812. But American naval officers engaged in the same practice against British sailors.
The impressment or forcible seizure of American seamen by the British Royal Navy in the late 18th and early 19th centuries has traditionally been viewed as a primary cause of the War of 1812. Americans at that time regarded impressment as a deliberate and dastardly act perpetrated by a foreign power against innocent men.
Impressment—though seen as a military necessity—created international conflict. Americans saw the practice as a threat to their national sovereignty and personal liberties, and in U.S. History, it is remembered as a cause of the War of 1812.
Learn about the Maritime Causes of the War of 1812, including the trade war and the impressment of American sailors by the British Royal Navy.
Impressment, the unsystematic seizure of men by a state to fill the ranks of its military machine, had provided warriors long before the opening volleys of the War of 1812.
Impressment, or “press gang” as it was more commonly known, was recruitment by force. It was a practice that directly affected the U.S. and was even one of the causes of the War of 1812. The...
Impressment was a general and recognized method of recruitment in most countries, and applied equally to service ashore and afloat. In England, for example, the famous ‘New Model’ army of Oliver Cromwell was largely recruited by impressments.