Whitehouse Blackened

During the Napoleonic Wars with France America was on the side of the Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys, a link that had existed since the American War of Independence when the colonists had been supported by France. As always they were late to the fight declaring war in 1812. To begin with the British and Canadians fought a mainly defensive war to repulse the American invasion forces. With the war against the military genius Napoleon coming to its conclusion all available resources were deployed defeating the bigger and more dangerous opponent on the other side of the Channel rather than getting caught up in an adventure on the other side of the Atlantic, so the strategy was to keep the Americans out of Canada and use the Royal Navy to blockade their trade routes. This proved a sucessful strategy. The army and their Native American allies largely kept the Americans out of Canada, helped by American mistakes, with the Navy doing so well on the ocean that they ended up being paid tribute by some of the coastal towns and even buring Washington DC on August 24 1814.

However this was to be one of the few major sucesses on American soil. The Americans had learned from their mistakes in Canada and proved to defeat on their home ground. The war ground on to a stalemate. Once Napoleon had abdicated Britain got rid of its trade restictions with France and stopped impressing sailor's as it wound down its military in order to reduce government spending so that it could try and pay off the enourmous debts that fighting the long war with France had created. With the reasons for the war gone and nobody in a position for a decisive victory a peace treaty was signed in 1815.