To us americans, the War of 1812 was like a second revolution. It is obvious that we won, or at least tied, because we're still here and not being ruled by the british. To the english however, the war was something very different. It was a mere after thought. it meant nothing to the proud british who were in the middle of the fighting the most powerful army in history. Napolean was in the middle of conquering all of Europe at the time so anything that was going on on our continent was a sideshow. When british sailors started defecting to US ships they naturally tried to get them back. Around 50 percent of all merchant ship sailors were british defects so it only seemed natural for Britiain to react the way they did. The British had to use the majority of their resources and manpower to defeat the French. The only standing army that they had in America was in Canada. The Americans unsuccesfuly invaded Canada and by the time the invasion plan was finished, the British had ended the war with Napoleon. This allowed the British to move thousands of battle tested soldiers to America and deal with us once and for all.
Most of the British people looked at this war and saw a betrayal by the American people and became outright enraged. They had been our mother country for hundreds of years and were a chief trade partner. The fact that Americans were boycotting the impressment of sailors was looked at with scorn.