|
Perry's Victory & International Peace Memorial National Memorial |
|
On September 10, 1813, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry defeated and captured a British squadron of warships at the Battle of Lake Erie. The battle, fought during the War of 1812, secured control of Lake Erie for the United States and enabled General William Henry Harrison to conduct a successful invasion of Western Upper Canada. Harrison subsequently defeated the British and Indians at the Thames River on October 5, 1813. The dual victories of Lake Erie and the Thames provided an important morale boost to the young country and gave the United States a much stronger bargaining position at the peace talks. The Treaty of Ghent, signed on Christmas Eve 1814, ended the War 1812. However, in 1817 the United States signed the Rush-Bagot Agreement with Great Britain, a document that has resulted in peaceful relations between the United States and Canada since the War of 1812. Constructed between 1912 and 1915 by a commission of nine states and the federal government, Perry's Victory & International Peace Memorial was built not only to commemorate the American naval triumph, but also "to inculcate the lessons of international peace by arbitration and disarmament." |
|
|
|