scholarly journals For Fate and Fortune: American Privateers in the War of 1812

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon Lee Harrison
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United States Navy ◽  
War Of 1812 ◽  
War Effort ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Naval Force

Despite their importance to the maritime war effort, American privateers and letter-of-marques are often overlooked by historians concerned with the War of 1812. Although they did not represent a formal branch of the American naval force, they served to inflict more damage on British commerce than the entire United States Navy combined. These men risked their lives by sailing against the world's most formidable naval force. Countless men lost their lives aboard American privateers and others saw their livelihoods (ships) destroyed at the hands of the British. The question of why these men chose to engage in such a perilous activity has perplexed historians for decades. This paper looks to cast new light on the subject, revealing the often overlooked power money has to encourage these men's participation in an otherwise perilous activity.Professor: Dr. Renée Lafferty-SalhanyCourse: HIST 4P10Grade Recieved: 92%

The Parvin-Brigham Mission to Spanish America, 1823–1826

1945 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-103
Author(s):  
J. Orin Oliphant
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
The United States ◽  
War Of 1812 ◽  
Spanish America ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Impact

Slowly during the years just preceding our War of 1812, and rapidly during the decade that followed the Peace of Ghent, the vast reaches of Latin America swam within the ken of the people of the United States. Of this “discovery” of our southern neighbors and of our relations with Latin America before 1830, we have learned much from a volume recently brought out by a distinguished historian of the United States, Professor Arthur P. Whitaker. Professor Whitaker's informing study was intended to be nothing less than a well-rounded history of the impact of Latin America upon the United States to 1830; and such it has proved to be—with one exception. Professor Whitaker completely overlooked the religious phase of the subject he otherwise treated so skillfully. Upon this neglected part of the history of our early relations with Latin America this paper will endeavor to throw some light.

scholarly journals ‘True, Publick and Notorious’: The Privateering War of 1812

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Faye M. Kert
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
United States Navy ◽  
West Indies ◽  
The United States ◽  
War Of 1812 ◽  
Royal Navy ◽  
The West ◽  
The Government ◽  
British North American

During the War of 1812, hundreds of private armed vessels, or privateers, carrying letters of marque and reprisal from their respective governments, served as counterweights to the navies of Great Britain and the United States. By 1812, privateering was acknowledged as an ideal way to annoy the enemy at little or no cost to the government. Local citizens provided the ships, crews and prizes while the court and customs systems took in the appropriate fees. The entire process was legal, licensed and often extremely lucrative. Unlike the navy, privateers were essentially volunteer commerce raiders, determined to weaken the enemy economically rather than militarily. So successful were they, that from July 1812 to February 1815, privateers from the United States, Britain, and the British provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia (as well as those sailing under French and Spanish flags) turned the shipping lanes from Newfoundland to the West Indies, Norway to West Africa, and even the South Pacific into their hunting grounds. In the early months of the war, privateers were often the only seaborne force patrolling their own coasts. With the Royal Navy pre-occupied with defending Britain and its Caribbean colonies from French incursions, there were relatively few warships available to protect British North American shipping from their new American foes. Meanwhile, the United States Navy had only a handful of frigates and smaller warships to protect their trade, supported by 174 generally despised gunboats. The solution was the traditional response of a lesser maritime power lacking a strong navy—private armed warfare, or privateering.

The Settlement of the Paraguayan-American Controversy of 1859: A Reappraisal

1968 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-69
Author(s):  
Thomas O. Flickema
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Rio De La Plata ◽  
Río De La Plata ◽  
La Plata ◽  
The North ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Subject ◽  
North And South ◽  
Naval Force

In December of 1858, while the press of the United States preoccupied itself with the fearful prospect of a war between the North and South, the newspapers of the Río de la Plata expressed great alarm at the more imminent danger of a clash between the United States and Paraguay. This alarm was generated by the gathering of a formidable American naval force in the estuary of the Río de la Plata, and prompted the American Minister to Brazil to notify Washington that “Great excitement prevailed on the subject of our expedition.” He further reported that the Platine papers “teemed with unfriendly comments, warning all nations as to our supposed designs.”

Liberal Internationalism from George W. Bush to Barack Obama

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Smith
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Barack Obama ◽  
Democratic Peace ◽  
War On Terrorism ◽  
Global War On Terrorism ◽  
Liberal Internationalism ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Global War

This chapter examines the United States' liberal democratic internationalism from George W. Bush to Barack Obama. It first considers the Bush administration's self-ordained mission to win the “global war on terrorism” by reconstructing the Middle East and Afghanistan before discussing the two time-honored notions of Wilsonianism espoused by Democrats to make sure that the United States remained the leader in world affairs: multilateralism and nation-building. It then explores the liberal agenda under Obama, whose first months in office seemed to herald a break with neoliberalism, and his apparent disinterest in the rhetoric of democratic peace theory, along with his discourse on the subject of an American “responsibility to protect” through the promotion of democracy abroad. The chapter also analyzes the Obama administration's economic globalization and concludes by comparing the liberal internationalism of Bush and Obama.

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