A) Due to extended difficulties with other nations, the American military was organized and ready to fight.
B) American military strength was greatly increased by careful planning and funding after the Revolutionary War.
C) The American army seized the day and fought brilliantly, while the navy struggled.
D) Little had been done to equip or improve the military since the Revolutionary War.
E) Americans flocked to join the military service, and all states cooperated in the effort.

D. People in the US were going about their business. No one was thinking about war.

A: This describes the British who were in a death struggle with Napoleon, the Adolf Hitler of his time.

B: Never happened

C: The army didn’t do a whole lot, except for winning the Battle of Orleans, which unfortunately came AFTER the war had already ended. Remember in those days news travelled as fast as a horse could trot.

E: Americans had little to no enthusiasm for the war. Some parts of northern New England even though about splitting from the US because they had close business, social and family ties to the British colonies. Bottom line: Nobody really cared one way or the other. As for the US Navy, without a doubt is marked the formation of the USN and gave it a role, purpose and traditions.

American participation in the War of 1812 was minimal. And it was not a Big Deal to the British either; their focus was on defeating Napoleon and this was a distraction cooked up by France and a few US politicians who thought they could benefit from running a war.

The defeat of the US meant that the British colonies, e.g. Upper Canada (Ontario), Lower Canada (Quebec), Nova Scotia, inter alia, did not become American. This left the door open to the formation of Canada in 1867. Though many Canadians like to say we won the War of 1812, the strict truth is that the Americans lost, the British won but didn’t care and until 1867 there was no Canada.