AFTER TWO CENTURIES of almost complete neglect British historians have finally turned their attention to the Anglo-American War of 1812, the ‘other’ war that raged alongside the later stage of the Great War against Napoleonic France. While little more than a distracting, annoying side-show for the British, the American war threatened the security of Canada, a large imperial territory with important timber and shipbuilding resources, the economic livelihood of the West Indian colonies, and the balance of power on the North American continent. In order to defeat the American invasion of Canada Britain needed a strategy that would be cheap, effective and successful.

In this essential book Brian Arthur shifts the historical focus away from the obvious military highlights – the land war in Canada, heroic naval combat on the broad Atlantic, the destruction of Washington DC and the defence of New Orleans – to the subtler basis of British strategy. He demonstrates that the key offensive asset in the British armoury was economic warfare, conducted by naval blockades and prize courts. This was the classic strategy of seapower, and it reflected long experience. The lessons of the American Revolutionary War had been clear enough: Britain could not defeat America while it was heavily engaged in an existential war with other major powers. Many British decision-makers had experience of the earlier conflict – some, like Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, had lost a brother.