<P> During the 19th century the popular image of the war in the United States was of an American victory, and in Canada, of a Canadian victory . Each young country saw its self - perceived victory as an important foundation of its growing nationhood . The British, on the other hand, who had been preoccupied by Napoleon's challenge in Europe, paid little attention to what was to them a peripheral and secondary dispute, a distraction from the principal task at hand . </P> <P> In British North America, the War of 1812 was seen by Loyalists as a victory, as they had claimed they had successfully defended their country from an American takeover . </P> <P> A long - term consequence of the Canadian militia's success was the view widely held in Canada at least until the First World War that Canada did not need a regular professional army . While Canadian militia units had played instrumental roles in several engagements, such as at the Battle of the Chateauguay, it was the regular units of the British Army, including its "Fencible" regiments which were recruited within North America, which ensured that Canada was successfully defended . </P> <P> The U.S. Army had done poorly, on the whole, in several attempts to invade Canada, and the Canadians had fought bravely to defend their territory . But the British did not doubt that the thinly populated territory would remain vulnerable in a third war . "We cannot keep Canada if the Americans declare war against us again", Admiral Sir David Milne wrote to a correspondent in 1817, although the Rideau Canal was built for just such a scenario . </P>

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