My history teacher, asked a question today, about who won the War of 1812. He says that he was taught that it was a draw, and his father-in-law says that he was taught that the U.S. lost. Yet today our textbooks say that the U.S. won. So, clear up any discussion? Who won?
In some ways all three of them are right.
Your History teacher was taught correctly, The war was technically a draw. By the time peace negotiations began in 1814 the British Prime Minister had come to the conclusion that the war was a stalemate and that no side had anything to gain from continuing the war aside from economic turmoil. The fact was by then both sides had basically reached their goals. The US no longer had to worry about the English backing Native Americans because the Tecumseh's alliance had collapsed, or Impressing their sailors AND blocking trade with France because the English were no longer at war with Napoleon's France. England's biggest goal of curbing US expansion by creating a Native American state on the US's western boarder was no longer plausible with Tecumseh's alliance collapsing.
His Father-in-law can be right too though. In a patriotic sence the war of 1812 is a rather embarrassing war. Think about it, the English just walked into Washington and burned it down. They destroyed the capital city, not only that but with the blockades the English put on American ports the economy almost completely collapsed. And then American attempts to capture Canadian territory were rather sad and did not amount to much more than US casualties. So there its a fair point of view to say that the war was so embarrassing to the US that they had to crawl to the negotiation table and beg for every to go back to they way It was before they started the war and since they didn't gain anything physical (cough cough Canada) it was a loss.
And your text book could be right, the US came out of the War of 1812 with most of its war goals met, they could trade as we like, no more impresment, many troublesome Indian tribes were scattered or wounded, and they had stood toe to toe with one of the biggest scariest European powers and not lost any land.
So the answer to who's right is probably "Yes" and really comes down to what you think was the main goal of the US for starting the war and from what perspective you look at it. The fact is that the war ended in a treaty that returned the status quo, the question is dose that mean the English won because they didn't start it? Or did the win US because the English stopped doing the actions that lead to the tentions in the first place.