During britain's war with france in the 1800s, the british interfered with us trade by the british also raided us merchant ships and forced us sailors to work in the british introduced the embargo act to make the british respect us rights, but his efforts failed. as britain continued the practice of impressment, tensions between the united states and britain continued to rise. following the americans were even more angered at britain for siding with tecumseh in canada. in response to all these british actions, the us congress declared war against britain.