PSAT Reading Practice Question 536

Question: 536

This passage is adapted from a 2014 article about Canada and the War of 1812.
Spanning a distance of more than 1,500
miles, the border between Canada and the
United States has been called the longest
undefended international boundary in the
05world. This is true to some extent in that
neither the U.S. nor Canada maintains a military
presence at the border. But as anyone who
has crossed from one side of Niagara Falls to
the other knows, civilian law enforcement is
10present and accounted for at checkpoints on
both sides of the boundary, where entrants
are monitored and customs laws administered.
Partly because of our cultural similarities
and partly because of the remarkable
15amiability of our diplomatic relations over
the past 150 years, it can sometimesseem
almost as though the distinction between
Canada and the United States is more one of
policy than one of practice. But this has not
20always been the case. There was a time when
the kinship between these two nations was
far more dubious, particularly in the years
prior to 1867, when Canada was granted its
dominion status and thus its independence
25from the British parliament.
In 1812, U.S. president James Madison
declared war on the British Empire. There
were a variety of reasons for the declaration:
British-U.S. relations were strained by
30England's attempts to thwart international
trade between the U.S. and France—with
whom the British were already at war—and
on several occasions, the Royal Navy had
endeavored to conscript American sailors
35by force. However, perhaps no cause for war
was more compelling in the U.S. than the
desire to expand the nation into the northern
territories of modern-day Ontario and
modern-day Quebec, which were still British
40colonies at the time.
With the United States paralyzed by
partisan infighting and confused about its
federal military policies, and Canada's
meager militias practically unaided by the British
45army—which was largely embroiled in
fighting against Napoleon's forces in Spain—
neither side was well-prepared for a war.
Nonetheless, in July of that year, Congress
launched its untrained 35,000-man army
50into the first stage of a four-pronged
offensive starting at Detroit, then Niagara, then
Kingston, and finally at Montreal. Madison—
who anticipated the conflict's resolution in
a matter of weeks—had as grossly overestimated
55the efficacy of the American military
as he had underestimated the tenacity of
New England Federalists' opposition to the
war. By adopting a cautious, defensive strategy,
Native-American and Canadian militias
60led by British officers successfully rebuffed
the invaders and eventually—following the
surrender of General William Hull to British
Major General Isaac Brock and Shawnee
Leader Tecumseh—captured not only Detroit
65but most of the Michigan territory as well.
The war dragged on for two years with
little progress on either side. By concentrating
their defenses in Ontario, the Canadians
left Quebec vulnerable to invasion along the
70St. Lawrence River. Consequently, the U.S.
seized portions of Upper Canada but because
of a combination of poor military leadership,
logistical obstacles, and inadequate funding,
never managed to take the key positions
75of Montreal or Quebec City. By April
of 1814, Napoleon was defeated in Europe
and a greater brunt of the British military fell
upon the United States. The primary theaters
of war, in turn, shifted from the Canadian
80frontier to coastal American cities such
as Baltimore, Washington D.C., and New
Orleans. Canada's role in the conflict was by
that time essentially at an end, though fighting
continued intermittently in the North
85until the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in
December of that year.
Since the War of 1812, Canada and the
U.S. have maintained a warm and neigh-
borly diplomatic relationship; the two
90nations fought as allies in both World Wars and
collaborated closely throughout the
Cold War with NORAD. More recently, the
Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement
implemented at the beginning of 1988 ushered
95in a tremendous increase in commerce and
business between the two. A shared British
colonial heritage and the English language
have provided all the common ground necessary
to make our two neighboring nations
100fast friends, but the now-antique batteries
and ramparts that still line the St. Lawrence
River stand as testament to a time when our
international intercourse was far less friendly
than it is today.
Canadian-American Trade
Year*
Total Annual Exports from the U.S. to Canada (Billions of U.S. Dollars)
Total Annual Imports from Canada to the U.S. (Billions of U.S. Dollars)
1986
45.3
68.3
1987
59.8
71.0
1988
71.6
81.4
1989
78.8
87.9
1990
83.7
91.4
1991
85.1
91.0
1992
90.6
98.6
*Data obtained from https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c1220.html#1985

According to the passage, the North American battles in the War of 1812 gradually shifted from

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