gation to the Marquis of Londonderry for
permission to use some of the Castlereagh correspondence, bearing on
the peace negotiations, which was not included in the extensive
published Memoirs and Correspondence of Lord Castlereagh; and to Mr.
Charles W. Stewart, the Librarian of the United States Navy
Department, for inexhaustible patience in searching for, or verifying,
data and references, needed to make the work complete on the naval
side.

A.T. MAHAN.

SEPTEMBER, 1905.

CONTENTS

ANTECEDENTS OF THE WAR

CHAPTER I

COLONIAL CONDITIONS
Page
Remote origin of the causes of the War of 1812 1

Two principal causes: impressment and the carrying trade 2

Claim of Great Britain as to impressment 3

Counter-claim of the United States 4

Lack of unanimity among the American people 5

Prevailing British ideas as to sea power and its relations to
carrying trade and impressment 9

The Navigation Acts 10

Distinction between "Commerce" and "Navigation" 11

History and development of the Navigation Acts, and of the
national opinions relating to them 13

Unanimity of conviction in Great Britain 22

Supposed benefit to the British carrying trade from loss of the
American colonies 23

British _entrepot_ legislation 24

Relation of the _entrepot_ idea to the Orders in Council
of 1807 27

Colonial monopoly a practice common to all European maritime
states 27

Effect of the Independence of the United States upon
traditional commercial prepossessions 29

Consequent policy of Great Britain 29

Commercial development of the British transatlantic colonies
during the colonial period 31

Interrelation of the continental and West India colonies of
Great Britain