The burning and looting of York after the battle, along with the destruction of other Upper Canadian settlements during the war, saw public opinions on Americans shift among the residents of Upper Canada. Historian, Charles Perry Stacey notes in the years before the war, American settlers had regularly settled into Upper Canada, with the colony essentially becoming a "transnational space," and the only distinction between Americans and Upper Canadians existing on paper. However, in the years after the war, Stacey notes a "deep prejudice against the United States," had emerged amongst the colony's settlers. Stacey further notes that, the burning of York, and other American transgressions during the war, was later used by Canadian nationalists to create a national narrative that sees the "birth of the Canadian nation," as a result of the conflict.