 The great city synagogue of Velna was built of stone from 1630 to 1633. After permission was given to build a stone structure to replace the old synagogue. In 1635 the synagogue was pelted with stones by riders. The interior was destroyed and all it contained was looted. The main prayer hall was square and could hold 300 people. It had a three-tiered Bhima in the center, composed of 12 pillars and it was surrounded by four pillars in Tuscan style supporting the dome. The two-tiered holy ark on the eastern wall was a splendid structure with gilded wood carvings representing plants, animals and Jewish symbols with a double-headed eagle on top. On both sides of the holy ark there were two-story structures serving as the women's section connected to the prayer hall by little windows. Hanging from the walls and ceilings there were numerous bronze and silver chandeliers. The synagogue contained a valuable collection of ritual objects. The building was repaired in the 19th century to great extent but it was burned during the battles of Velneos in 1944 and completely destroyed in 1957. During recent excavations at the site, buttons from uniforms worn by soldiers in Napoleon's army have been found during the excavation of the great synagogue. Among the remains of the buried synagogue, archaeologists discovered priceless colorful floors and a Hebrew inscription dated to 1796 that was part of the stone Torah reading table. Specialists from the Israeli Antiquities Authority and Lithuanian conservation officials have been excavating the site each summer for the last four years. The War of 1812 began on June 12th when Napoleon's army crossed the Nieman River, starting wars between France and Russia. The war continued until 14 December, 1812, culminating in the victory of the Russian and Allied forces. But the tensions that caused the war of 1812 arose from the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. During this nearly constant conflict between France and Britain, American interests were injured by each of the two countries' endeavors to block the United States from trading with the other. This led to the unthinkable, American shipping initially proposed from trade with the French and Spanish Empires. Although the British countered the U.S. claim that free ships make free goods, with the belated enforcement of the so-called Rule of 1756, trade not permitted in peacetime would not be allowed in wartime. The Royal Navy didn't force the act from 1793 to 1794, especially in the Caribbean Sea, before the signing of the Jay Treaty. Under the primary terms of the treaty, American maritime commerce was given trading privileges in England and the British East Indies. Britain agreed to evacuate forts still held in the Northwest Territory by June 1, 1796, and the Mississippi River was declared freely open to both countries. Although the treaty was ratified by both countries, it was highly unpopular in the United States and was one of the rallying points used by the pro-French Republicans led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, and wrestling power from the pro-British Federalist led by George Washington and John Adams. After Jefferson became President in 1801, relations with Britain slowly deteriorated and systematic enforcement of the Rule of 1756 resumed after 1805. Compounding this troubling development, the decisive British naval victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, and efforts by the British to blockade French ports, prompted the French Emperor, Napoleon, to cut off Britain from European and American trade. The Berlin trade decree of 1806 then established Napoleon's Continental System, which impinged on U.S. neutral rights by designating ships that visited British ports as enemy vessels. The British responded with orders in council in 1807 that required neutral ships to obtain licenses at English ports before trading with France or French colonies. In turn, France denounced the Milan Decree, which strengthened the Berlin Decree by authorizing the capture of any neutral vessel that had submitted to search by the British. Consequently, American ships that obeyed Britain faced capture by the French and European ports, and if they complied with Napoleon's Continental System, they could fall prey to the Royal Navy. The Royal Navy's use of impressments to keep its ships fully crewed also provoked Americans. The British accosted American merchant ships to seize alleged Royal Navy deserters, carrying off thousands of U.S. citizens into the British Navy. In 1807, the frigate HMS Leppard opened fire on the U.S. Navy frigate Chesapeake and seized four sailors, three of them U.S. citizens. London eventually apologized for this incident, but it came close to causing war at the time. Jefferson however chose to exert economic pressure against Britain and France by pushing Congress in December 1807 to pass the Embargo Act, which forbade all export shipping from U.S. ports and most imports from Britain. But this act hurt Americans more than the British or French, however causing many Americans to defy it. Just before Jefferson left office in 1809, Congress replaced the Embargo Act with the Non-Intercourse Act, which exclusively forbade trade with Great Britain and France. This measure also proved ineffective and it was replaced by Macon's Bill No. 2 in 1810 that resumed trade with all nations but stipulated that if either Britain or France dropped commercial restrictions, the United States would revive non-intercourse against the other. In August, Napoleon insinuated that he would exempt American shipping from the Berlin and Milan decrees, although the British demonstrated that French restrictions continued. U.S. President James Madison reinstated non-intercourse against Britain in November 1810, thereby moving one step closer to war. Britain's refusal to yield on neutral rights derived from more than the emergency of the European War. British manufacturing and shipping interests demanded that the Royal Navy promote and sustain British trade against American competitors. The policy born of that attitude convinced many Americans that they were being consigned to a de facto colonial status. Britons, on the other hand, denounced Americans' actions that effectively made the United States a participant in Napoleon's continental system. As a colony of Great Britain, Canada was swept up in the War of 1812 and was invaded several times by the Americans. The war was fought in Upper Canada, Lower Canada, on the Great Lakes, and the Atlantic, and in the United States. The Peace Treaty of Ghent of 1814, which ended the war, largely returned the status quo. However, in Canada, the war contributed to a growing sense of national identity, including the idea that civilian soldiers were largely responsible for repelling the American invaders. In contrast, the first nation's allies of the British and Canadian cause suffered much because of the war. Under increasing pressure, Madison summoned the U.S. Congress into session in November 1811. Pro-War Western and Southern Republicans, known as Warhawks at this time, assumed a vocal role, especially after Kentucky Warhawk Henry Clay was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. Madison sent a war message to the U.S. Congress on June 1, 1812, and signed the Declaration of War on June 18, 1812. The vote seriously divided the House, 79 to 49, and was gravely close in the Senate, 19 to 13. Because seafaring New Englanders opposed the war, while Westerners and Southerners supported it, Federalists accused war advocates of expansionism under the ruse of protecting American maritime rights. Expansionism, however, was not much of a motive, as was the desire to defend American honor. The United States attacked Canada because it was British, but no widespread aspirations existed to incorporate the region. The prospect of taking East and West Florida from Spain encouraged Southern support for the war, but Southerners, like Westerners, were sensitive about the United States' reputation in the world. Furthermore, British commercial restrictions hurt American farmers by barring their produce from Europe. Regions seemingly removed from maritime concerns held a material interest in protecting neutral shipping. Free trade and sailors' rights was not an empty phrase for those Americans. The onset of war both surprised and chagrined the British government, especially because it was preoccupied with the fight against France. In addition, political changes in Britain had already moved the government to assume a conciliatory posture towards the United States. British West Indies planters had been complaining for years about the interdiction of U.S. trade and their growing influence, along with a deepening recession in Great Britain. Convinced the Liverpool Ministry that the orders and counsel were averse to British interest, on June 16, two days before the United States declared war, the orders were suspended. Some have viewed the timing of this concession as a lost opportunity for peace, because slow transatlantic communication meant a month's delay in delivering the news to Washington. Yet because Britain's impressments policies remained in place and frontier Indian wars continued, in all likelihood the repeal of the orders alone would not have prevented war. The origins of the War of 1812 were in the conflicts that raged in Europe for almost two decades after Napoleon Bonaparte became First Council, later Emperor of France. These Napoleonic Wars between 1799 and 1815 caused Great Britain to adopt measures that greatly aggravated the United States. That's all from us for the moment guys. You can let us know below what you are thinking and as always, thank you for watching.