The War of 1812: America's Most Pointless War?

About this episode

Ever wondered how a war can end a full month before its biggest, bloodiest battle even happens? Welcome to the War of 1812 — history's most confusing "second war for independence." Jaron and Tim go deep on the War of 1812 — the war everybody's heard of and nobody actually understands. This is the "second war for independence," a messy tangle where Great Britain was still throwing its weight around 30 years after the Revolution, kidnapping American sailors right off their ships through a wild policy called impressment, seizing entire trade vessels, and quietly puppeteering a Native American confederacy across the Midwest. Meanwhile Napoleon's going ham across Europe, Britain's fighting the Luddites, and the young United States is getting squeezed from every direction. The guys trace it all from the Louisiana Purchase to the burning of Washington, the New England states nearly breaking away at the Hartford Convention, and the almost comically tragic Battle of New Orleans — a massive American victory fought two weeks after the peace treaty was already signed, because news traveled so slowly nobody knew the war was over. Along the way you'll get the secret unfinished vault behind Ab