British – American Essay

Assess British American Relations in the 1840s The 1840s was a point of American expansion and diplomacy. Throughout these years, tensions grew in British-American dealings. By this time, The United States had extended its force play and territories throughout the world, and the British Empire had problems in its g everywherenment. Throughout the 1840s, the dickens countries dis dictateed oer spelly things. The main things the British and Americans disagreed all over in the 1840s were circumferences and owner enter of territory. However, the resolution of these disagreements was the superlative achievement of this period. The issues included the Creole disassembleicipation in 1841, the Caroline Incident of 1837, and the operating theater territory dispute. These study(ip) disputes could have started a third struggle amid the two nations. Because of the Manifest Destiny brainpower of the Americans, they melodic theme that all territory to the westside belonged to, or would belong to the US. Supporters of the Manifest Destiny argued that more(prenominal) Western land was needed to skinnish space for the new Americans created by a high birth rate and change magnitude immigration.They pointed out that land governed by Mexico and Britain was sparsely populated and mostly unproductive. The supporters argued that the land should be given to American settlers who can put it to better use. British and American dealing improved however by the Webster-Ashburton pact of 1842. By the 1840s, commerce amid the US and Britain improved compared to prior decades. Some disagreements amongst merchants of the two nations still ensued. One major(ip) argument was the Creole Affair.In the early 1840s, the British were interested in fighting the slave trade. They were against the importation of African slaves into the Americas. In 1841, on the American ship Creole, over cxxx enslaved Africans overpowered the crew, murdering one man, while sailing from Virgin ia to untested Orleans. 2 Led by capital of Wisconsin uppercase, the slaves sailed the vessel to Nassau, Bahamas, where the British declared them free. 3 Americans argued that the property of US slave owners should be protected in foreign ports.US-British relations grew tense from this incident, which was similar to how the war of 1812 was started. The Caroline was an American steamship that had been aiding rebels in Canada. Canadian militia, on orders of the British, seized the Caroline in American waters in 1837. They set the ship on fire, and sent it hurling over Niagara Falls. 4 These actions strained US relations with Great Britain, almost to the point of war, heretofore again. In 1840, a Canadian man was arrested for allegedly having a role in the attack. The British stated that his execution would fuddled war.The US decided to release the Canadian prisoner and tensions temporarily subsided. In the 1830s, the American and Canadian bourn was still non settled. It included both Maine and especially the surgery territory, which is now present day southerly British capital of South Carolina and the American peaceful Northwest. Most of the American Canadian touch issue was settled after the war of 1812. The British-American Convention of 1818 set most of the border as the forty-ninth parallel. The problem came west of the continental divide in the operating theater territory.The British wanted the area that follows the Columbia river which ran south of the 49th parallel into fur trapping areas owned by the Hudson true laurel Company. 5 In 1846, after place morose an agreement for over 20 years due to negotiators being inefficient to reach an agreement, the Treaty of Washington was sign between the US and Britain. It set the boundary between Canada and the United States at the 49th parallel, from the Rocky Mountains to the coast. 6 The line was later on extended southward through the disjuncture Islands and then followed the mid-point through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, to the Pacific Ocean.Navigation through the Gulf Islands and the Strait of Juan de Fuca was to be ensured for both nations. 7 A major turning point in U. S. relations with Great Britain came with the signing on idealistic 9, 1842, of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty. This treaty settled several matters between the two nations. The new British outside(prenominal) Minister, Lord Aberdeen, sent Lord Ashburton to Washington to meet with Secretary of State Daniel Webster to transact some boundary issues. The two were friends so negotiations went smoothly.Together, they developed a treaty that change the Maine-New Brunswick boundary, which had been the cause of the Aroostook War (1838-1839). 8 The U. S. reliable most of the territory as strong as navigational rights on the St. john River. The treaty also settled the hesitation of the US Canada boundary between Lake splendid and Lake of the Woods. 9 Some movement was do toward addressing extradition conc erns between the two nations. This issue became slight following the Caroline affair, so a formal extradition treaty was signed later.Also part of the treaty, the US agreed to station ships off the African coast in an perspiration to detect Americans engaging in the slave trade. In conclusion, the British-American relations during the 1840s teetered on the strand of a third war between the two nations. The Manifest Destiny mentality that the Americans had instilled in them played a major role in their conflicts with Britain. They were determined to thrive all the way to the Pacific Ocean, and didnt seize any move by the British or any other power to shorten their border, especially in the mating with the Oregon treaty.