The Embargo Act of 1807 was an effort by President Thomas Jefferson and the U.S. Congress to ban American ships from transacting in foreign ports. It was anticipated to chastise Britain and France for prying with American trade whereas the two major European controls were at war with each other. The president had wanted that the act would avoid a war in the middle of the United States and Britain. But then again in some means it was also a forerunner to the War of 1812.