The British Navy was embroiled in a difficult war and was unwilling to lose any of its labor force. To the British, a person born in the British Empire was a subject of that empire for life, a status they could not change. As a republic, the Americans advanced the notion that people could become citizens by renouncing their allegiance to their home nation. As a result, around 30 percent of sailors employed on American merchant ships were British. In response, pay rates for sailors increased and American captains recruited heavily from the ranks of British sailors. Driven in part by trade with Europe, the American economy grew quickly during the first decade of the nineteenth century, creating a labor shortage in the American shipping industry. Impressments, that is the practice of forcing American sailors to join the British Navy was among the most important sources of conflict between the two nations. And each time, British leaders showed little interest in accommodating the Americans. In both cases, American interests and goals conflicted with those of the British Empire. The second had older roots in the colonial and Revolutionary era. The first had to do with the nation’s desire to maintain its position as a neutral trading nation during the series of Anglo-French wars, which began in the aftermath of the French Revolution in 1793. The War of 1812 stemmed from the United States’ entanglement in two distinct sets of international issues. Yet war with Britain loomed - a war that would galvanize the young American nation and convince many citizens that the many voices now inhabiting the national political arena all spoke with one voice. Although it was unpopular, Jefferson still believed that more time would have proven that peaceable coercion truly was an effective weapon of international diplomacy. Soon after Jefferson retired from the presidency in 1808, Congress ended the Embargo, as the British relaxed their policies toward American ships.
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