I see it in a way as the second phase of the war of independence with Great Britain, the first being the Revolutionary War, largely started by Madison because of conflicts over sailors and ships in the Atlantic Ocean, America's trade routes to Europe, as well as some British incitement of Indian revolts in the territories, where Great Britain still desired to attain more control than simply over Canadian lands.
A mere 30 years had passed since the end of the Revolutionary War, and alliances in Canada and the USA were shifting only gradually towards and within the new nation, the United States. Canada was, in many ways, the foothold of Great Britain remaining in North America. There was, of course, a third nation with a foothold in North America, France, with strongholds in Quebec, and in parts of the Louisiana territory, extending into St Louis, and other parts of what is now the American Midwest. Although France had sold her interests in American Territory in the areas below Canada to the USA, several largely French-American outposts still remained in the Louisiana territory along the Mississippi. French towns in North America were considered by the British as rightfully belonging to the British after the French having been defeated in Europe.
Madison, in June 1812, got a declaration of war from Congress, and began battling with British encampments, as close as the naval areas around the port of Baltimore, just a few weeks later.
The war between Great Britain and France in Europe really took Britain's prime attention for the first two years of the war of 1812. Two major American land battles, (although there were others smaller ones), in Washington, DC and New Orleans, were the major events on US soil, the second, the Battle of New Orleans, actually took place about two weeks AFTER a treaty between the US and Great Britain had been reached in Ghent, Belgium, December 24, 1814, and Jackson defeated 5000 British troops that January day, earning himself high praise, and, eventually, the U.S. Presidency and our legacy of "Jacksonian democracy".
24,000 American and British soldiers lost their lives during this war, yet really no land changed hands as a result of this war. America and Britain went back to an "ante-bellum status quo" in territorial terms.
The real losers in this war, disastrous for them, the Native Americans, they simply lost land, people, rights, and were almost forgotten from this point forward until the late 1850'-1870's.
Lots of interesting video on this:
http://www.pbs.org/wned/war-of-1812/the-film/watch-film-and-bonus-features/
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