Snap Debate Overview

In class today, there were four different causes that were argued to be the main cause of the war. Each group prepared a 2 to 3 minutes debate trying to prove that their cause was the one that caused the War of 1812. The four causes were as follows:

1. Impressment- Impressment was when British ships invaded American ships and forcibly took American sailors to be part of the British navy. The British were not technically on American soil, but they ended up capturing some odd 140,000 American sailors. They justified their intentions by going by the phrase "Once a British citizen always a British citizen."

2. Chesapeake Affair- The Chesapeake Affair was like impressment, except the British commenced to shoot at the ships. This became the first form of a battle in the War of 1812. As a result, Thomas Jefferson signed an Embargo Act that prevented Americans from exporting or even leaving the ports. It brought trade to a near zero.

3. Orders in Council- The Orders in Council was a response to Napolean's seize of power. Te Americans restricted trade from France, which did not help the trade situation.

4. Incitement- Incitement was when war hawks from the south west had evidence that the British were giving the Amerindians weapons and preparing them for war against American colonists. They bribed them with clothing and other items, and helped them to learn how to use the weapons they were given. The Americans saw this as a threat considering it was right on their own land and were worried that the Amerindians would be provoked to start a war.

My group was Incitement. While we discussed what incitement really meant, it was pretty obvious that it was the only cause that presented the most of a threat towards America. It was easy to write a debate because none of the other groups could argue that they affected the actual homeland of America. We could argue that the Amerindians were already unhappy with the Americans, and as soon as the British gave them guns and told them how to shoot, they would want to start a war.

Three people came to our group after the debate and they all said that incitement affected America directly while the others affected seamen and mostly Europe. Snap debates are really interesting and I hope we do more of them in the future.