I woke up with "Battle of New Orleans" in my head, so I'll ask.

[raccoon]

I wonder if in the case of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, it wasn’t so much that the Americans beat the British. It was that the British decided it wasn’t worth the trouble. What do you think?

[Sherman A1]

1. Some of both I suspect

[hlthe2b]

2. If so, they were very prescient.

[whathehell]

5. Lol...I doubt they would agree

However 'unpatriotic' you're feeling today.

[whathehell]

3. I think

you should probably go back to bed.

[The Magistrate]

4. Regarding The First, Sir

It was the appearance of strong French forces in the field, on land and on sea, signaling the possibility the matter could escalate to a grand conflict with a major power, that seems to have been the deciding factor.

In regard to the second, a desire for peace after the great strain of the Napoleonic Wars was certainly a factor in the English decision to settle with the United States, rather settling it once and for all. But commerce raiding by privateers under letter of marque from the United States did cost England a good deal. Insurance rates for merchant voyages verged on the prohibitive by 1815, and these privateers accomplished a good deal more than Napoleon's naval forces ever managed.

[3Hotdogs]

6. Had to be a combination of factors.

Economic. The king's treasury was surely being depleted. Loss of commerce between the colonies. Remember, part of the cause of the war was British East India Tea Company was taking a hit and they wanted to make it up in the colonies. Cotton wasn't being shipped to Brit mills.

Were upper class Brits gonna be taxed to continue the conflict?

Military. Loss of Saratoga and Yorktown were disasterous. Secondariiy, were the battles that weren't won by the Americans but weren't British victories, either: Brooklyn Heights, Monmouth, Brandywine, Springfield and on and on. Springfield is of interest because Georgie paid for Hessians to help defeat the colonists. They completely fucked up by attacking Washington alone. They were supposed to wait and join forces with a British force and then attack Washington. And they were expensive.

Morale on the home front: Not all Brits were in favor of the war.