"1812: The Inconsequential War That Changed America Forever"

An article by Jim Quinn posted at Zero Hedge. Although the primary purpose of the article is to describe how the war changed Americans' outlooks about their country and federal power, it also provides a nice overview of the origins and primary events of the war. He also provides some thoughts on why the Battle of New Orleans was actually significant to the outcome of the war, even though a peace treaty had been signed prior to the battle.

One thing I would add, though, is a comment on the role of privateers that often seems to be overlooked. When war was declared, the United States had a very small navy. To make up for this, Congress began authorizing privateers to seek out and capture British merchant marine vessels. They were quite effective at this. So effective in fact, that toward the end of the war, insurance rates for British flagged vessels had skyrocketed, and some members of Lloyds were facing financial ruin by reason of having to pay out on lost ships and cargo. Thus, Lloyds pushed heavily to force Britain to come to terms with the United States.