There were several immediate stated causes for the U.S. declaration of war: first, a series of trade restrictions, Orders in Council (1807), introduced by Britain to impede American trade with France, a country with which Britain was at war (the U.S. contested these restrictions as illegal under international law); second, the impressment (forced recruitment) of U.S. citizens into the Royal Navy; third, the British military support for American Indians who were offering armed resistance to the expansion of the American frontier to the Northwest. President James Madison and Congress declared what is sometimes referred to as the 2nd War of Independence, the War of 1812.
