History of Washington, D.C. problems, and plans for further construction to reach the Ohio River were abandoned. During the War of 1812, British forces conducted an expedition between August 19 and 29, 1814, that took and burned the capital city. On August 24, the British routed an American militia, which had gathered at Bladensburg, Maryland to protect the capital (see Battle of Bladensburg). The militia then abandoned Washington without a fight. President James Madison and the remainder of the U.S. government fled the capital shortly before the British arrived. The British then entered and burned the capital during the most notably destructive raid of
Kingdom of Norway (1814) Kingdom of Norway (1814) In August 1814, after a loss in the Swedish–Norwegian War, Kingdom of Norway was forced to join in a personal union with Kingdom of Sweden, thereby becoming subject to a naval blockade by the British Empire, but remaining largely autonomous within the union. Although nationalist aspirations were not to be fully realized until the events of 1905, 1814 was the crisis and turning point in events that would lead to a fully independent Norway. The year contains the story of one king and two ambitious future kings in Scandinavia who may have hoped to unite Sweden,