List the reasons the US went to war against Britain in the War of 1812.

The United States went to war against Great Britain in 1812 for the following reasons:

• the belief (not entirely incorrect) that the British government was supporting, even encouraging, Native attacks along the Northwest frontier. The attempted pan-Indian revolt led by Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa that was finally destroyed as part of the War of 1812 was seen as the product of British machinations. 


• the impressment of American sailors by the British navy. This practice had been ongoing for some time. Suspecting American ships of harboring deserters from the Royal Navy, British captains would often take American ships by force and force sailors--those suspected of desertion--to serve on British ships. This was part of a larger issue of free trade and freedom of the seas that emerged from the Wars of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars in France.


• a desire by many Americans to wrest parts of Canada from the British Empire. This was a popular motive among many of the "war hawks," a group of young politicians who clamored for war. These men saw the elimination of  British influence in Canada as the only means to end British meddling on the frontier, and believed it would open the way for further territorial expansion by the young United States, already doubled in size since the Revolution by the Louisiana Purchase. They also saw the first two issues listed above as intolerable affronts to the nation's honor.