This PBS film shows how the glories of war become enshrined in
history. How failures are quickly forgotten and how inconvenient truths
are ignored forever.
The War 1812 is a two-hour film history is a deeply significant event in North American and world history. The war
shaped American, Canadian and British destiny in the most literal way
possible: had one or two battles or decisions gone a different way, a
map of the United States today would look entirely (and shockingly)
different. The U.S. could well have included Canada - but was also on
the verge of losing much of the Midwest, and perhaps the entire West to
boot. The New England states, meanwhile, were poised on the brink of
secession just months before a peace treaty was signed.
The
fires of this war forged the nation of Canada; at the same time, the
result tolled the end of Native American dreams of a separate nation. By
war's end, the process of Native nation removal had already begun in the
southeast, paving the way for a Cotton Kingdom powered by slavery, and a
United States that had been on the verge of collapse was ready to
announce its arrival as a global power. The U.S. did not win the War of
1812, but the noble experiment of democracy had managed to survive
intense pressure from without, and within.
