Posts Tagged ‘First page of the Treaty of Ghent’

The British strategy (in the War of 1812) had been to capture parts of Maine and much of the Northwest Territory and add it to Canada. By taking New Orleans, Britain believed it could force the U.S. to concede some or all of the Louisiana Purchase as part of a treaty. Acknowledging that England could not win in North America was a huge policy shift in Parliament, where many MPs wanted the Thirteen Colonies back.