Alternate War of 1812

I'm working on an alternate history to The War of 1812. I'm having some difficulty picking where the true history will change into the alternate history.
My thinking is that it might change BEFORE the war actually started. Like maybe just after The Revolutionary War ended. I could have Washington and the Founding Fathers discuss that they barely squeaked out the victory and thus need a regular army in the off chance that the new U.S. go to war with The British Empire again.
Then when the War of 1812 starts, there would be a larger army and no need to use the militia (like the U.S. had to do at the beginning of the war).

What are your guy's thoughts?
 
from what i understand, the british underestimated the americans because they thought 'it is only militia'. a real standing arming will make the british take them a lot more serious, and thus there will be more troops stationed in NA.
lets say OTL amount of militia are now regular army. net result is probably a bigger US defeat, since more brit troops around.
Furthermore i think a real standing armywill be seen as an offensive intent of the us, where militia is pretty much defensive, so it will cause a strong reaction from the british
 
from what i understand, the british underestimated the americans because they thought 'it is only militia'. a real standing arming will make the british take them a lot more serious, and thus there will be more troops stationed in NA.
lets say OTL amount of militia are now regular army. net result is probably a bigger US defeat, since more brit troops around.
Furthermore i think a real standing armywill be seen as an offensive intent of the us, where militia is pretty much defensive, so it will cause a strong reaction from the british

That could be true, but you have to remember that Britain was at war with Napoleon in Europe at the time. He would be and was a greater threat to Britain. Their (Britain) territorial claims in North America were considered back woods territory and they were drawing troops away even DURING the war with the U.S. It wasn't until Napoleon was beaten at Waterloo that they stopped drawing troops away. And you also have to remember that Quebec was once a French colony and most were semi-loyal to the French. So the troops that WERE there already were there not in the off chance that the US would invade, but to maintain order too.

So even if the US had a regular army (which it did, but not a big one) that could rival the British one, Britain had a bigger fish to fry with Napoleon.
 
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