The War of 1812 was not merely a battle against an external foe but stemmed from

internal problems as well. The external enemy that the United States was facing was

Britain, but that was not the most severe dilemma that they faced. The real problem that

was occurring during this time was the internal struggle going on in the United States of

America. These internal conflicts consisted of matters such as the issue of the north part

of the country which was federalist did not want to go into war, but the south part of the

states, which were anti-federalist wanted to go into war. Another issue was the

warhawks, a group of western and southern leaders that was firmly republican in their

parties loyalty and encouraged war, the warhawks would become a cause for more

internal problems facing the United States during the time period around the War of 1812.

One issue that supports the statement that internal struggle was a factor that led to

the War of 1812 is the issue of the dispute between the northern part of the United States,

which, being mostly federalist, was loyal to the British, not wanting to go to war and the

southern part of the United States, having enough of the British presence on U.S. soil,

wanting to go to war. This dispute was over whether or not to go to war, anger and rage

flew back and forth during the heated debates about facing Britain in a battle or just

backing off. The north wanted to back off and did not want war, while the south craved

to get Britain out of the U.S and teach them a lesson. This caused great conflict in

Congress and the government as a whole. This conflict grew in size and was one of the

major reasons that the U.S. decided to go to war with Britain, without the influence

spurred by this conflict war may have never occurred.

The last issue mentioned that caused U.S. internal conflict was the presence of the

warhawks, a group of southern and western leaders that encouraged war against Britain

due to the fact that they were fed up with their occupation of U.S. land and the fact that

they believed that Canada should be in the possession on themselves, the warhawks. This

issue caused great turbulence among the political parties and government of the U.S.. It

brought forth issues that once were never thought were able to come up and were thought

to be avoidable. This came to become a aspect and contribution towards the choice to

stand up and fight the war with Britain instead of backing down, which led to the start of

the War of 1812.

Hence, the War of 1812 was not merely a war fought against an external foe but

stemmed from internal problem as well. These internal issues and conflicts ranged from

turbulence between the North and South and the warhawk conflict. Conflicts like these

lead to war and in this case it led to the War of 1812 between the United States and

Britain. Therefore, the internal affairs spurred conflict that became the basis of the War of

1812