Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews May 31, 2023 May 24, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
In attacking New Orleans, Cochrane's hope was to prevent US ships from entering and exiting the Mississippi River, cutting off America's most important inland transportation and shipping route. Cochrane also wanted to attack New Orleans because it had a vast stockpile of valuable goods like sugar and tobacco that had been piling up over the years of embargo.
The American navy at New Orleans was a particularly haphazard, ramshackle mixture, which gave Cochrane an initial advantage with his rested, repaired fleet. Also, although Jackson was and is remembered as an American military hero, his command was far from perfect. Blunders abounded, including his foolish decision to keep his forces in West Florida, leaving New Orleans undefended, for such a long time. After winning the battle of New Orleans, Jackson became a national hero and his popularity eventually propelled to the presidency. However, his victory in New Orleans owed as much to luck as to sound strategy. The death of Ross and the slowness with which Packenham arrived to command his troops greatly aided Jackson, as did the very geography of the New Orleans region. In terms of the popularity his victory generated, Jackson also lucked out: though the Battle of New Orleans was fought after the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, because news of the victory swept the US before news of the treaty, many Americans assumed Jackson's victory ended the war.
In reality, as important as the War of 1812 seemed in the United States, on the world scale it was a mere shadow compared with the far vaster Napoleonic Wars. In many ways the War of 1812 can and should be considered as an outgrowth of the conflict in Europe. Regardless, the war certainly meant a lot to the young American nation, which dubbed the War of 1812 the "Second War for American Independence." Many hyper-patriotic Americans went so far as to announce that the War of 1812 had announced the United States' role as a world power. Although there was much to be proud of in the war, this was far from the case. The US had started a war and then barely defended itself, allowing Washington to be looted and burned in the process. However, the War of 1812 was a start. Fending off Britain did allow the US to focus on internal growth and consolidation during a near century of isolationism in which the US was for the most part left alone by the other powers of the world.
And while the War of 1812 was neither the military triumph Americans often painted, nor an announcement of global power, the American exaggeration of the war does stand testament to one of the war's effects: a dramatic increase in American nationalism. In the aftermath of the war, schools replaced British textbooks with American, the Bank of the United States was resuscitated (1816), and artists began to produce a distinctly "American" literature. Politically, Henry Clay's visionary "American System" called for linking the nation into a single marketplace by building a transportation infrastructure of railroads. The tremendous period of the American nineteenth century, with its isolationism, incredible industrialization, westward expansion, increasing sectionalism, secession and Civil War, all resulting, ultimately, in America's ascension to the world stage, can be seen as emerging from the seeds planted in the War of 1812.
Please wait while we process your payment