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| - With the victory of Napoleon over Russia in 1813 and subsequently Britain in late 1815 and early 1816, the United States of America found itself on the victorious end of the War of 1812, which ended officially with William Clark's (of Lewis and Clark fame) capture of Louisbourg, the last British stronghold in Canada, on May 4th, 1814. Britain's losses in Europe opened the door for a rapid American absorption of Canada and Caribbean territories, as well as Andrew Jackson's swift campaign to seize Florida and Cuba before France could make designs on the former Spanish territories. As a further result of Spain's ruling at the hands of Napoleon, the Central and South American colonies detached themselves quickly from Spanish control, sometimes even with the help of the elite installed by the d
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| abstract
| - With the victory of Napoleon over Russia in 1813 and subsequently Britain in late 1815 and early 1816, the United States of America found itself on the victorious end of the War of 1812, which ended officially with William Clark's (of Lewis and Clark fame) capture of Louisbourg, the last British stronghold in Canada, on May 4th, 1814. Britain's losses in Europe opened the door for a rapid American absorption of Canada and Caribbean territories, as well as Andrew Jackson's swift campaign to seize Florida and Cuba before France could make designs on the former Spanish territories. As a further result of Spain's ruling at the hands of Napoleon, the Central and South American colonies detached themselves quickly from Spanish control, sometimes even with the help of the elite installed by the deposed Spanish royalty themselves, before Napoleon's armies arrived in the New World. The fear of Napoleonic intervention in the Western hemisphere led to the election of Georgia's William Crawford over James Monroe, the outgoing President Madison's Secretary of State. Crawford and his Vice President, John Quincy Adams, made their best effort to keep Napoleon disinterested in the spoils of the West. France, however, had ravaged Europe in many years of what became known as the Imperial War, and Napoleon had his attention turned towards putting down revolts throughout his new Empire. The trans-Atlantic alliance tentatively formed during what Americans knew as the Canadian War became one primarily of courtesy; Napoleon had seen the tenacity of American soldiers called up from around the young country during the battles against the British and had no intention to involve himself in another costly war. Witrh the Virginia Dynasty of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison now over, Crawford set about developing and organizing teh newly captured territories in Canada, Flordia, Cuba and Puerto Rico. Unfortunately, his presidency ended somewhat prematurely; in 1819 he fell terribly ill and while officially President, it was Adams and Secretary of State Henry Clay who carried out the day-to-day activities of the Crawford regime. On June 6th, 1821, only months after leaving office, Crawford would die peacefully on his Georgia estate, only the second President to pass away. Against the backdrop of the ailing President was an increasingly heated campaign to succeed Crawford. The specter of the French Empire - which stretched from the border of the Portuguese runt state to the Urals bordering the divided remnants of the old Russian Empire - just across the ocean made foreign affairs critical in the 1820 election. Adams, backed by the remains of the Federalist party from the north that had managed to survive through a sympathetic Crawford presidency, ran against William Clark, a Virginian who had made his fame exploring the West and later becoming a hero of the Canadian War, and a territorial governor of the Huron Territory. Adams, despite his support of Northern industrialists, lost narrowly to the upstart and inexperience Clark. He would run for a Senate seat from New Englad two years later, a seat his family would hold for the next eighty-four years. Clark was a self-described moderate; he believed in expansion of territory, expansion of agriculture and expansion of industry. He built what is today known as the Great Coalition, also the Clark Coalition, a powerful bloc of voters who supported his policies in all three major regions of the United States; the Industrial North, the Slaveholding South, and the Expanding West. Clark dealt favorably with Indians, as did Chief Justice John Marshall. General Andrew Jackson, a passionate Tennessean, disagreed however, and his efforts to create new lands for plantation owners in the south made him a champion of the opposition to Clark: southern gentry and northern laborers in an unusual bloc that became known as the Democratic Party. Jackson ran against Clark in the 1824 election but lost heavily. Clark and his new Secretary of State, Henry Clay, continued their work of expanding the economy in three directions, and by 1828 the United States had welcomed the new states of Huron, Cuba and Nova Scotia. Clark debated seeking a third term in 1828, but a stroke in the summer made it a virtual impossibility. Clay vowed to seek the Presidency in his mentor's stead, but was upended unexpectedly by New York Democrat Martin Van Buren and his fierce South Carolinan running mate, John C Calhoun. The Postwar Era of Crawford and Clark had ended.
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