Final answer:
The Treaty of Ghent ended the War of 1812. The war had lasting consequences for the United States domestically and internationally. The treaty resolved some conflicts with Great Britain, but other issues remained unresolved.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Treaty of Ghent officially ended the War of 1812. With the treaty, each side returned any territory and property it had taken in the war. All borders were returned to their 1811 state. The Indians were also promised to have their lands as of 1811 returned. This particular agreement, however, was not honored. The Americans, particularly Andrew Jackson, were not interested in honoring any agreement with the Indians that would ultimately limit American expansion. While Great Britain and the United States regained their former borders, the Indians would never be restored to their former condition. Indeed, from 1814 onwards, the Indians would continually be pushed aside by the United States: the United States was expanding, and the Indians were in the path with nowhere to go. The war had one other casualty: the Federalist Party. On the verge of death once before, their opposition to the war dealt them a fatal blow. American success cost the Federalists public approval. Some of their ideas survived, however, as the war gave James Madison reason to reconsider his own political views.
In the wake of the War of 1812, both Great Britain and the United States sought ways to improve their relationship, largely because the war settled none of their differences. The British reached out to the Americans to address issues not resolved in the Treaty of Ghent; their effort led to several agreements that brought long-term peace between the two nations. The Rush-Bagot Agreement of 1817 demilitarized the Great Lakes region; the Congress of 1818 provided for American fishing rights off the coast of Canada, restricted British travel on the Mississippi River, ended British trade with the Indians in the Louisiana Purchase, and set the boundary between the United States and Canada at the Rocky Mountains. The Anglo-American rapprochement also tacitly gave American shippers the protection of the British Navy in the Atlantic. Thus, the Americans could spend less on their own navy and devote those resources to other projects. The agreements improved foreign trade and helped both nations improve their economic health.
Establishing sovereignty over territory ceded to the United States in the Treaty of Paris proved difficult. First, the British excluded American ships from their ports, which impacted the trade of timber, wheat, and other goods. They also did not evacuate all of their trading posts in the Northwest. Merchants found other markets and they also engaged in smuggling, but the Confederation Congress lacked the power to do more to secure a commercial treaty or to force the British to evacuate American land. Second, the Spanish disputed the border between New Spain and the United States. They also closed the Mississippi River to American traffic, which significantly affected the ability of southerners to conduct their international trade through New Orleans. Congress sent John Jay, the secretary of foreign affairs, to negotiate with Spain and instructed him to stand up for American rights in the Southwest. When it became clear his Spanish counterpart would not budge, Jay deviated from his instructions. He sacrificed navigation on the Mississippi for a commercial treaty. However, southerners in Congress blocked the measure. Many states did not want Congress to negotiate on their behalf; they wanted to make their own commercial arrangements. Thus, issues with Great Britain and Spain continued to fester.