Right to sail: the Atlantic world and the development of maritime policy 1789-1812

Abstract

For millennia, peoples and civilizations from around the world have taken to the seas in search of new lands and riches. European imperial expansion following the discovery of the New World is possibly the best example of how seafaring nations were able to expand their territories, both politically and economically. As the Atlantic World developed into a more complex and convoluted global system the interior conditions of the nations involved became intertwined. However, this transition to a more global economic system was not without its problems. In fact, the War of 1812 was the result of many of the intricacies regarding trade on the high seas. With a lack of any substantial and broadly accepted maritime law, great naval powers were able to prey on the trading vessels of weaker nations. The fledgling United States was often a prime target of the British Empire. Given this, the United States declared neutrality with regard to the ongoing wars of the French Revolution. American neutrality, however, was never really accepted by the premier power, which led to further attacks on American vessels based on their economic relations with enemies of the crown. This aggression against American ships clearly had its roots in the broader scope of international maritime policy and standards in the developing Atlantic World. Nearly a century of conflict in Europe between rival imperial powers and the development of lucrative trade opportunities in the new world turned the Atlantic into a tinderbox. When Great Britain refused to accept the position of the United States in this developing world system in the early nineteenth century, war erupted again on a scale of unprecedented proportions. The only true way to understand the War of 1812, the time period preceding it, and the development of maritime standards in the Atlantic World is through the use of a transnational perspective.