There were four different perspectives in the War of 1812:
- American: A war for honor and led to expansion.
- Native Americans: A war for freedom and the formation of an independent Indian nation.
- British: A war of defense. They were more concerned with the Napoleonic Wars.
- Canadian: The war that defined them as a people.
The Canadian perspective is often lost in the story. Often, students in American classrooms learn of the battles against Native Americans and the British but never study the nationality that came into being because of this war.
To answer the question: How did the War of 1812 Affect Canada? One must understand the two different types of Canadian citizens at the time.
Lower Canada: French Canadians
The residents of Lower Canada lived around the area of Quebec and had no love for the British. 50 years prior, the British had conquered Quebec and all of New France.
Due to that bloody history, Americans believed that if the residents of Lower Canada were given the opportunity to free themselves from British rule, they would, but they were wrong.
French Canadians who were of a fighting age had lived as British citizens, and that is all they had known. The British guaranteed them the freedom of their language, culture, and religion, so when the War of 1812 broke out, they had little interest in participating in another quarrel between Big Brother and Little Brother.
The French Canadians knew what they had with the British, but they did not know if the government of America would give them the same freedoms they enjoyed. When the War of 1812 broke out, and they chose to fight alongside the British, they did so as Canadians defending their freedoms.
Upper Canada: Loyalists and Pioneers
After the American Revolutionary War, the British did their best to absorb the loyalist population in the thirteen colonies. They moved many to a colony in Upper Canada around the province of Ontario.
After the war and the continued expansion of America, there were many pioneers who settled around the displaced loyalists. By the time of the War of 1812, there were more pioneers that had settled in Upper Canada than loyalists.
While it was clear the loyalists would never forgive and support their former countrymen for what they had done to them, most Americans believed that all they would have to do was march through Upper Canada, and those who had settled there would support them and join America.
They were wrong.
Canada Becomes A Nation
The War of 1812 made Canada a nation.
While Canada would not gain its independence from Great Britain until July 1, 1867, the War of 1812 melded a cluster of colonists that had different backgrounds together as one nationality. They did not fight the Americans because they were commanded to by the British, but rather as defenders of Canada.
They stood beside the British and Native Americans to push back an invasion into their homeland.
This advertisement gives the Canadian perspective of the War of 1812:
After the war, the United States never invaded Canada again, and by the time of the Civil War, Canada had become a destination of freedom for runaway slaves.
In 2014, Canada and the United States celebrated 200 years of peace between the two nations. It is marked by the signing of the Treaty of Ghent.