Travellers interested in military history usually think of
Europe as the place to visit battlefields, but Canada has its
fair share of them and as this year marks the 200th anniversary
of the War of 1812, there is no better time to visit some of
them. The World Wars of last century are recent enough that they
loom large in our memories, but it’s no understatement to say
that the War of 1812 is every bit as important in Canada’s
history as those great conflicts. In fact, if the outcome had
been different there would probably be no country called Canada.
The reasons for the war are diverse, but it was essentially an
American effort to get rid of the British presence in North
America. It began with an American invasion of Ontario and ended
three years later with British soldiers burning down the White
House and Capitol buildings in Washington. While many of the
war’s battles took place in Ontario and Quebec, there were also
forays into bordering American states such as New York, Illinois
and Ohio. There were als