What were 3 main complaints Madison had against Britain in 1812?

Answer 1

The three main complaints that the U.S. had against Britain in 1812 were:

1.Britain tried to impose restrictions on the United States' merchant trade with France beginning in 1807, for two reasons: Britain was at war with France (the Napoleonic Wars) and hoped to harm it by preventing it from trading for necessary items with the United States, which had the largest merchant fleet not involved in the war, and it wanted to hamper the growing competition from the United States in commerce and manufacturing.

Of course, Britain had no right under international law to impose restrictions on a neutral nation's trade.

2. Britain had had to expand the Royal Navy tremendously in order to fight its war. It did not have enough volunteers and so began to "impress" its citizens as sailors, essentially kidnapping men from the streets and bars of its cities and releasing them only on board a ship, where they had no choice but to serve in the Navy. Unfortunately, Britain believed that its subjects remained its subjects even after they had left Britain, moved to Another Country (such as the United States) and become citizens there. It therefore claimed the right to stop United States ships on the seas and search them not only for deserters from the British Navy who had become American citizens but also anyone else who had been born in Britain, whom they considered subject to impressment. Understandably, the U.S. was angry about this, and were infuriated when British naval ships had the audacity to station themselves just outside U.S. harbors, in U.S. territorial waters, to maximize the number of U.S. ships they could intercept.

3. The Old Northwest Territory, which included what is now Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, had been an area of dispute between the Indians and the United States ever since the British Empire had ceded the area to the United States at the end of the American Revolution. White Americans were eager to expand into these fertile lands while Native Americans wanted to protect their homes. Battles between the two groups were ongoing, and the U.S. was especially concerned after the Indian nations formed a confederation. Since the British saw the Indian nations as possible allies and as providing a buffer zone protecting Canada from attempts by the U.S. to annex it, they provided much-needed guns and ammunition to the Indians.