Austria formed an alliance against Russia. Bernadotte, Crown Prince of
Sweden, and formerly one of Napoleon's marshals, refused aid to France.
Napoleon threatened Sweden and began preparations against Russia.

The United States seized West Florida. The American ship President and the
British ship Little Belt exchanged shots, and friction between the two
countries increased. At Tippecanoe, General Harrison defeated the Indians
under Tecumseh. Resentment against Great Britain because of her conduct on
the sea, and her assertion of her right to search American ships,
increased in the United States.

The Mamelukes decoyed to attend a festival in Cairo and slaughtered by
Mehemet Ali. Dutch settlements in Java captured by the English. The King
of Rome, son of Napoleon and Marie Louise, born on March 20. Agitation in
England against flogging soldiers and sailors. Luddites smashed machinery
in Nottingham. Heinrich Kleist, German poet, committed suicide. Bishop
Percy, ballad compiler, died.

=POPULATION.--Washington, D.C., 8,208; New York, 96,373; London (including
Metropolitan District, census 1811), 1,009,546; United States, 7,239,881;
Great Britain and Ireland (census 1811), 15,547,720.=

=RULERS--The same as in the previous year, except that the Prince of Wales
became regent of Great Britain.=

1812

The English under Wellington captured Ciudad Rodrigo, and began to press
hard on the French in Spain. Badajos, held by the French under General
Philippon, stormed by the British after a fight in which five thousand men
fell. American privateers began to prey on British commerce. June 18, war
began between America and England. The first contest was between the
American ship President and the British ship Blandina; the Blandina
escaped. The Essex, Captain David Porter, and with Midshipman David G.
Farragut, aged thirteen, on board, captured a British transport with two
hundred soldiers, and forced the Alert to surrender. The United States
frigate Constitution sunk the British frigate Guerriere, but the British
Poictiers captured the American sloop Wasp. Other naval duels ended in
favor of American ships. Decatur, commanding the frigate United States,
took the Macedonian, while the Constitution captured the Java. President
Madison refused the services of General Andrew Jackson; Jackson thereupon
organized an independent corps, which was reluctantly accepted when
reverses came. General Hull led the Americans to Canada, and wa