The United States had to fight not one, but two wars for his independence.

The first, of course, was the Revolutionary War.

Can you name the second?

It was the war of 1812.

Now both wars were against the British.

And in both cases, the Americans should have lost.

The Revolutionary War is very much celebrated in American history.

The second one has all but been forgotten.

But had it been lost, America's history would have been much, much different.

The British precipitated the war by failing to recognize the United States as a sovereign nation.

For five years between 1807 and 1812, they repeatedly disrupted American commerce,

boarding American merchant ships, capturing their sailors, over 5,000 of them,

enforcing them to work on British ships.

Finally, President James Madison said enough.

And on June 18th, 1812, Congress declared war on Britain.

The euphoria didn't last long.

And for good reason, the Americans had no viable strategy, no standing army to speak of,

no generals worthy of the rank, very small navy, a wholly inadequate supply of munitions.

It was a different story on the British side.

They had all the men, ships, generals, and admirals they needed, and then some.

If these upstart Yankees wanted war, the British were only too happy to accommodate them.

Things weren't pretty much as expected, one American defeat, after another,

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