Anglo-American relations
Encyclopedia
British–American relations encompass many complex relations over the span of four centuries, beginning in 1607 with England's first permanent colony in North America called Jamestown
, to the present day, between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
and the United States of America
.
The United States is bound to Britain by shared history, a common language and legal system, culture, and kindred, ancestral lines in English Americans, Scottish Americans, and Welsh Americans, which can be traced back hundreds of years.
Through times of war and rebellion, peace and estrangement, as well as becoming friends and allies, Britain and the United States cemented these deeply rooted links during World War II
into what is known as the "Special Relationship
", still described by a leading commentator
as "the key trans-Atlantic alliance", which the U.S. Senate Chair on European Affairs
acknowledged in 2010 as "one of the cornerstones of stability around the world."
Today, the relationship with the United States represents the "most important bilateral partnership" in current British foreign policy
while United States foreign policy affirms its relationship with the United Kingdom as one of its most important enduring bilateral relationships, as evidenced in aligned political affairs, mutual cooperation in the areas of trade, commerce, finance, technology, academics, as well as the arts and sciences; the sharing of government and military intelligence, and joint combat operations and peacekeeping
missions carried out between the United States armed forces
and the British Armed Forces
. Britain has always been the biggest foreign investor in the USA and vice versa.
The United States and the United Kingdom are the largest economies and the most populous nodes of the Anglosphere
, with a combined population of over 370 million as of 2010.
After several failed attempts the first permanent English settlement in mainland North America came in 1607 at Jamestown
in the Colony and Dominion of Virginia
. By 1624, the Colony and Dominion of Virginia would cease as a charter colony administered by the Virginia Company of London as it became a crown colony
. The Pilgrims were a small Protestant-sect based in England and Amsterdam; they sent a group of settlers on the Mayflower
. After drawing up the Mayflower Compact
by which they gave themselves broad powers of self-governance, they established the Plymouth Colony
in 1620. In 1630 the Puritans established the much larger Massachusetts Bay Colony
; they sought to reform the Church of England
by creating a new and more pure church in the New World.
Other colonies followed in Province of Maine
(1622), Province of Maryland
(1632), Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
(1636) and Connecticut Colony
(1636). Later came the founding of Province of Carolina
(1663) (divided in 1729 into the Province of North Carolina
and the Province of South Carolina
). The Province of New Hampshire
was founded in 1691. Finally came Province of Georgia
in 1732.
The Province of New York
was formed from the conquered Dutch colony of New Netherland. In 1674, the Province of New Jersey
was split off from New York. In 1681 William Penn
was awarded a royal charter in 1681 by King Charles II to found Province of Pennsylvania
.
The colonies were operated separately, except for the short-lived Dominion of New England
, which failed in 1689.
and Welsh
migrants arrived as permanent residents in the Thirteen Colonies, which in the century after the Acts of Union 1707
, was surpassed in rate and number by Scottish
and Irish
migrants.
The period of British settler colonization saw the introduction of liberal administrative, juridical, and market institutions positively associated with socioeconomic development. At the same time, colonial policy was also quasi-mercantilist
, encouraging trade inside the Empire, and discouraging trade with other powers, and discouraging the rise of manufacturing in the colonies, which had been established to increase the trade and wealth of the mother country. Britain made much greater profits from the sugar trade of its commercial colonies in the Caribbean.
The introduction of coercive labor institutions was another feature of the colonial period. All of the Thirteen Colonies were involved in the slave trade. Slaves in the Middle Colonies
and New England Colonies
typically worked as house servants, artisans, laborers and craftsmen. Early on, slaves in the Southern Colonies
worked primarily in agriculture, on farms and plantations growing indigo, rice, cotton, and tobacco.
The French and Indian War
, fought between 1754 and 1763, was the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War
. The conflict, the fourth such colonial war
between France
and the Kingdom of Great Britain
in North America, resulted in the British acquisition of New France
, with it French Catholic population. As part of the terms dictated in the Treaty of Paris
signed in 1763, the French ceded control of French Louisiana
east of the Mississippi River
to the British, which became known as the Indian Reserve
.
The Thirteen Colonies
gradually began to experience more limited self-government. Additionally, British mercantilist policies became more stringent, benefiting the mother country which resulted in trade restrictions, thereby limiting the growth of the colonial economy and artificially constraining colonial merchants' earning potential. Prefaced by debt accrued during the French and Indian War
of which the American Colonies were expected to help repay, tensions escalated from 1765 to 1775 over issues of taxation without representation and control by King George III
. Stemming from the Boston Massacre
when British Redcoats
opened fire on civilians in 1770, rebellion consumed the outraged colonists. The British Parliament earlier imposed a series of taxes such as the Stamp Act of 1765 and later on, the Tea Act of 1773
, of which an angry mob of colonists protested about in the Boston Tea Party
by dumping chests of tea into Boston Harbor. The British Parliament responded to the defiance of the colonists by passing what the colonials called the Intolerable Acts
in 1774. This course of events ultimately triggered the first shots fired in the Battles of Lexington and Concord
in 1775 and effectively, the beginning of the American War of Independence itself. A British victory at the Battle of Bunker Hill
in June 1775 would agitate tensions even further. While the goal of attaining independence was sought by a majority known as Patriots
, a minority known as Loyalists
wished to remain as British subjects indefinitely. However, when the Second Continental Congress
convened in Philadelphia in May 1775, deliberations conducted by notable figures such as Benjamin Franklin
, Thomas Jefferson
, John Hancock
, Samuel Adams
, and John Adams
would eventually come to the conclusion of seeking full independence from the mother country. Thus, the Declaration of Independence
, ratified on July 4, 1776, signed on August 2, 1776, and then sent to King George III for his review, was a radical and decisive break for its time.
Early in the war, British forces were driven back during the Boston campaign
by colonial militia, retreating to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1776. However, the New York and New Jersey campaign
as well as the Philadelphia campaign
saw numerous British victories at the Battle of Kip's Bay, the Battle of Long Island
, the Battle of White Plains
, the Battle of Brandywine
, and the Battle of Germantown
while the Continental Army
under the command of George Washington
defeated British forces at the Battle of Harlem Heights
, the Battle of Princeton
, and the Battle of Trenton
. In addition, a capture and occupation of New York City
and Philadelphia by British forces proved initially successful before they would eventually evacuate both cities in 1777 and 1778 respectively. Although British forces were victorious at the Siege of Fort Ticonderoga in 1777, the Saratoga campaign
would result in the overwhelming favor of the Continental Army under the command of Horatio Gates
, most notably at the Battles of Saratoga, and further underlined by the entry of the Kingdom of France
in 1778. During the Siege of Savannah
in 1779, American and French forces made a failed attempt to retake the city of Savannah
after it was captured by British forces a year earlier. In the Southern theatre
, colonial militias largely dominated the Southern Colonies until the Siege of Charleston
occurred and British forces took control of the city in 1780. The Battle of Camden
and Battle of Guilford Courthouse were tactically decisive for British forces, although any future victories would come at a high cost as the British Army
became more weakened over time with mounting casualties and not enough manpower. Turning points in the war were during the Battle of King's Mountain in 1780 and the Battle of Cowpens
in 1781 when the Continental Army under the command of Daniel Morgan
were deemed victorious over Banastre Tarleton's
cavalry unit, the 1st King's Dragoon Guards
. With limitations placed on successful war tactics, the long-term strategy of military commanders in the British Army such as Thomas Gage
, Sir William Howe
, Henry Clinton, John Burgoyne
, and most notably Lord Charles Cornwallis
, failed to defeat the Continental Army and French. The tipping point came on October 19, 1781 when Lord Cornwallis' subordinate, Charles O'Hara
surrendered his sword to George Washington's subordinate, Benjamin Lincoln
at the Siege of Yorktown
.
In 1783, the original thirteen states which created one independent and sovereign nation known as the United States of America, was recognized by the Kingdom of Great Britain
in the mutual terms agreed upon by both sides in the Treaty of Paris
. In 1785, John Adams
was appointed the first American plenipotentiary minister, now known as an ambassador, to the Court of St. James's
. In 1791, Great Britain sent its first diplomatic envoy, George Hammond
, to the United States.
When Great Britain and France went to war in 1793, relations between the United States and Great Britain as well verged on war. Tensions were subdued when the Jay Treaty
was signed in 1794, which established a decade of peace and prosperous trade relations. The international slave trade was gradually suppressed after Great Britain passed the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act
in 1807, and the United States passed a similar law in 1808.
The United States imposed a trade embargo, namely the Embargo Act of 1807
, in retaliation for the United Kingdom’s blockade of France, which involved the visit and search of neutral merchantmen, and resulted in the suppression of Franco-United States trade for the duration of the Napoleonic Wars
. The Royal Navy also boarded American ships and impressed
sailors suspected of being British deserters.
The War of 1812
was initiated by the United States under James Madison
partly to protect American trading rights and freedom of the seas for neutral countries. Another motivation was American anger over British military support for Native Americans
defending their tribal lands from encroaching American pioneers. Additionally, the United States' ambition for territorial expansion northward and westward was reflected in a belief in Manifest Destiny
.
A planned American invasion of British North America
, including the destruction of the colonial capital of York
and victory at the Battle of York
in April 1813, was countered when on August 24, 1814, the burning of Washington
saw the United States Treasury Building
razed and the White House
burned. British forces would again prove victorious on that same day at the Battle of Bladensburg
. Some but not all land attacks made by American forces northward into British North America, such as the Battle of the Chateauguay in October 1813 and the Battle of Crysler's Farm
in November 1813, were repulsed by British forces. However, American forces also won victories at the Battle of the Thames
in October 1813 and the Battle of Longwoods
in March 1814. The United States Navy
gained naval supremacy over the Great Lakes
by defeating the Royal Navy at the Battle of Lake Erie
in September 1813 and at the Battle of Plattsburgh
in September 1814. Beginning on September 12, 1814, and lasting for another three days, British forces were also repulsed at the Battle of Baltimore
.
Negotiations led to the Treaty of Ghent
, which ended the war by restoring the status quo ante bellum. No territorial gains were made by either side. The U.S. negotiator Albert Gallatin
conceded: "Under the existing unpropitious circumstances of the world, America cannot by a continuance of the war compel Great Britain to yield any of the maritime points in dispute, and particularly to agree to any unsatisfactory arrangement on the subject of impressment; and that the most favorable terms of peace that can be expected are the status ante bellum." The United Kingdom retained the right of impressment and the United States dropped the issue for good.
The impressment controversy had in fact been largely resolved shortly after war had been declared, when the U.S. government, by enacting the Impressment Bill (1812), began to insist that applicants for U.S. citizenship must reside continuously in the United States for a minimum of five years, thereby inhibiting the reception of deserters and removing the source of British complaint, and therefore largely solving, with a stroke of Madison's pen, the problem the United States had ostensibly gone to war over.
As one of the peace terms, the United Kingdom agreed to return captured slaves, but subsequently paid the United States £350,000 for them. A British proposal to create an Indian buffer zone in Ohio and Michigan collapsed after the Indian coalition fell apart. The United States largely ignored the guarantees it made in article IX regarding American treatment of Native Americans.
Before word could be sent to field commanders that the war was over, a US force under General Andrew Jackson
repulsed a British attack at the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815. Shortly afterwards, a US force was defeated at Fort Bowyer
by a British force under John Lambert. The War of 1812 marked the end of a long period of conflict between the United Kingdom and the United States, and ushered in a new era of peace between the two nations, who would become allies nearly a century later.
In the words of one American historian
of the conflict: "Neither side sought the War of 1812, and in the short run it was tragically unnecessary."
, a unilateral response in 1823 to a British suggestion of a joint declaration, expressed American hostility of further European encroachment in the Western hemisphere
. Nevertheless, the United States benefited from the common outlook in British policy and its enforcement by the Royal Navy.
After the Panic of 1837
, numerous states in the United States defaulted on bonds owned by British investors. During the Caroline Affair
in 1837, British North America
n rebels fled to New York and used a small American ship called the Caroline to smuggle supplies into British North America after a failed rebellion there. In late 1837, militia from British North America burned the ship, leading to diplomatic protests, an unquenched sense of Anglophobia
, and other incidents.
Additional conflicts on the Maine
-New Brunswick
border involved rival teams of lumberjacks in the Aroostook War
. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty
, signed in 1842, resolved these issues and finalized the border. In 1859, the Pig War
determined the question of where the border should be in relationship to the San Juan Islands
and Gulf Islands
.
1859 was also a year of early signs of British-American co-operation when a British naval force under the command of Admiral Sir James Hope attempted to seize the Tako Forts
guarding the mouth of the Peiho river in northeastern China
. The action was witnessed by American Commodore
Josiah Tattnall
, who had fought in the War of 1812, and, on this occasion, was supposed to be just a neutral observer. However, he eventually went to the assistance of the British gunboat Plover, offering to take off their wounded. The offer was accepted and the wounded evacuated. Later, Tattnall discovered that some of his men were black from powder flashes. When asked, the men replied that the British had been short-handed with the bow
gun. In his famous report sent to Washington soon afterwards, Tattnall claimed that "Blood is thicker than water". Although the British and Americans had fought side-by-side, the action was unofficial — and the Americans were supposed to be neutral observers.
, the United Kingdom issued a proclamation of neutrality on May 13, 1861. Nevertheless, the Confederate States of America
assumed that the British would prove sympathetic, despite their negative view on slavery. Although the Confederacy attempted to provoke British intervention through cotton diplomacy
, leading to failed threats of a trade embargo on "King Cotton
," it was the Trent Affair
in 1861, when the USS San Jacinto
stopped the British civilian vessel RMS Trent
and took off two Confederate diplomats named James Murray Mason and John Slidell
, that almost provoked a third war between the United Kingdom and the United States. While diplomatic measures between London and Washington were ongoing, the British under Lord Palmerston began mobilizing a small militia in British North America who were unprepared in the event of a full-scale invasion of up to an estimated 200,000 soldiers in the Union Army
.
The United Kingdom knew that any recognition of a sovereign and independent nation called the Confederate States would be an act of war against the United States. In addition, the United Kingdom had to take into consideration that the British economy was heavily reliant on growing trade with the United States, most notably cheap grain
imports high in demand which in the event of war, would be cut off by the Americans. Third, the British knew that the United States had an indispensable European ally, the Russian Empire
to help fight in a possible war against the United Kingdom . And lastly, British forces in British North America
were vastly outnumbered by the Union Army which if British war tactics proved to be unsuccessful, the risk of annexation of British North America by the United States might be inevitable.
The British were content with a formal apology on behalf of the United States so that war could be averted over lingering issues revolving around the Trent Affair. Thus, Abraham Lincoln
eventually relented as he did not want to fight a war on two fronts, having United States Secretary of State William H. Seward
smooth matters over.
Despite outrage and intense American protests, the United Kingdom allowed the British-built CSS Alabama
to leave port as a commerce raider under the naval flag of the Confederacy. After the American Civil War ended in 1865, the United Kingdom abided by the terms of the Treaty of Washington
outlined by an arbitration of an international tribunal in 1871, thus paying $15.5 million in gold to the United States for the destruction caused by the CSS Alabama, while admitting no guilt.
disputed the boundary between the latter country and British Guiana
in 1895, President Grover Cleveland
and Secretary of State Richard Olney
pressured the British into agreeing to an international arbitration. In 1898, a tribunal convened in Paris
to decide the matter in question, and thus issued its verdict in 1899, awarding the bulk of the disputed territory to British Guiana. Despite this setback for the United States, it showed that standing with a Latin America
n nation against the encroachment of the British Empire
improved relations with the United States' southern neighbors. However, the cordial manner in which the negotiations were conducted by the United States also improved diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom.
Ever since the Alaska Purchase
in 1867, the United States inherited unresolved border disputes dating all the way back to 1821 over the Alaska Panhandle
between what was previously known as Russian Alaska
and British North America. However, the Alaska boundary dispute
was finally resolved by an arbitration in 1903, agreed upon in the Hay-Herbert Treaty
as a British judge sided with the United States and the District of Alaska
against their neighbors, the Canadians, who were outraged that land and territorial waters in British Columbia
were sacrificed for the benefit of British-American harmony.
is a term that was used to specifically describe the convergence of social and political objectives between the United Kingdom and the United States from 1895 until World War I began in 1914. Ever since the War of 1812
ended in 1815, exactly 80 years prior to when the Great Rapprochement began, relations between the United Kingdom and the United States were continuously and deeply troubled. However, the differences that had separated an industrialized United Kingdom and an agrarian, anti-imperialist United States where Anglophobia
ran high, rapidly diminished in the decades preceding World War I.
The most notable sign of improving relations during the Great Rapprochement was the United Kingdom's actions during the Spanish–American War. With the onslaught of war beginning in 1898, the British had an initial policy of supporting the Spanish Empire
and its colonial rule over Cuba
since the perceived threat of American occupation and a territorial acquisition of Cuba by the United States might harm British trade and commerce interests within its own imperial possessions in the West Indies. However, after the United States made genuine assurances that it would grant Cuba's independence, which eventually occurred in 1902 under the terms dictated in the Platt Amendment
, the British abandoned this policy and ultimately sided with the United States unlike most other European powers who supported Spain.
After victory in the Spanish-American War, the United States appeared to have its own rising empire due to its rapid acquisition of numerous overseas colonial possessions and had begun to build the Great White Fleet
as a newfound symbol of its enormous power projection and as a blue water navy. Seizing upon this notion, both the United Kingdom and the German Empire
engaged in pro-American propaganda campaigns designed to win over a possible World War I alliance with the United States. The British in fact, were able to guarantee a price for American cotton producers, who were the most affected by the potential loss of trade with Germany and Central Europe.
At the beginning of World War I
, the unrestricted activities of German agents against British interests, as well as the United States' refusal to check the Indian seditionist movement
, was a major concern for the British Government that triggered an intense neutrality dispute through 1916. The British Far-Eastern Fleet's activities, especially the SS China and SS Henry S incidents drew strong responses from the United States, prompting the United States Atlantic Fleet
to dispatch naval destroyers and battleships to the Pacific Ocean in order to protect the sovereignty of American vessels. However, this dispute did not calm down before November 1916.
Woodrow Wilson
allowed a munitions trade to continue, despite disputes over freedom of the seas
because of the British naval blockade of Germany and complaints of German 'militarism'. Thus, the United States would only supply the Triple Entente
onwards.
As evidence of German complicity in public incidents, including the Black Tom explosion
, and conspiracies in and against the United States such as the Zimmerman Telegram, it became more obvious that American public opinion was becoming more influenced to the prospect of joining World War I. When the German Empire responded in 1916 with a submarine blockade of the United Kingdom and the sinking of the RMS Lusitania
by a German U-boat
, it led to a protest by the United States and a strong sense of anti-German feelings among the American people.
The German Empire returned to unrestricted submarine warfare
in January 1917 in the belief that the United Kingdom would be decisively weakened before the United States could mobilize for war. Nevertheless, the United States declared war on the German Empire, joined the Allies, and sent 1.982 million American servicemen under the command of General John J. Pershing to France out of a total of 4.355 million available. Though initially slow at mobilization of the American Expeditionary Force
to the Western front, American doughboys were instrumental in providing heightened morale for the Allies as well as hastening a victorious end to the war in Europe. British and American forces in fact, fought together and side by side at numerous engagements on the Western Front
such as the Third Battle of the Aisne
from May to June 1918, the Battle of Belleau Wood
in June 1918, the Second Battle of the Marne
from July to August 1918, the Battle of Amiens in August 1918, the Battle of St. Quentin Canal and the Fifth Battle of Ypres
both from September to October 1918, and the Battle of Courtrai
in October 1918, all leading to Armistice Day
on November 11, 1918.
Although Woodrow Wilson had wanted to wage war for the sake of humanity, the negotiations over the Treaty of Versailles
underlined in his Fourteen Points for Peace
made it plainly clear that his diplomatic position had weakened with victory. The borders of Europe were redrawn on the basis of national self-determination, with the exception of Germany under the newly formed Weimar Republic
. Financial reparations were imposed on the Germans, despite British reservations and American protests, largely because of France's desire for punitive peace.
, when the United States and the United Kingdom agreed to the allocation of equal tonnage quotas on February 6, 1922. Although the United States Navy
had the right to build a navy equal in size and power of the British Royal Navy, it voluntarily opted to remain the junior of the two navies, with a smaller, albeit growing, fleet of vessels. Nevertheless, the United States' policies on immigration and trade ignited a Pacific Fleet
rivalry with the Empire of Japan
rather than an Atlantic Fleet
rivalry with the British Empire.
In the 1920s, relations between the two countries took on many different forms, especially given American refusal to join the League of Nations
. While the United States participated in functional bodies of the League —to the satisfaction of Britain— it was a delicate issue linking the US to the League in public. Thus, some conferences, like the Washington Conference mentioned above, occurred outside League auspices. The US would often be unable to send official delegates to League committees, instead sending unofficial "observers," considering the strained political debate in the country between Isolationism and Internationalism.
During the Great Depression
, the United States was preoccupied with its own internal affairs and economic recovery, espousing an isolationist
policy. As a result, the US was only sporadically active in foreign affairs throughout the 1930s. After the United States imposed a high tariff on foreign imports in 1930 called the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, the United Kingdom and the rest of the British Empire unsuccessfully built up imperial trade preferences, thereby attempting to promote trade internally and divert trade away from the United States. Nevertheless, the Great Depression did eventually spread to the United Kingdom, so much that the UK Treasury found it nearly impossible to repay loans and war bonds granted by banks in the United States during World War I. In the end, most of the World War I debt which had been accrued by the United Kingdom as well as many other European countries were largely written off and excused by American bankers.
Towards the end of 1936, the Abdication Crisis, while absorbing popular interest in both the United Kingdom and the United States, did not become a foreign relations issue. At the insistence of Stanley Baldwin
, the ultimatum was given to King Edward VIII of retaining his throne as head of the Church of England
, or renouncing his birth right as King and marrying an American divorcee named Wallis Simpson.
Tensions over the Irish question
diminished with the independence of the Irish Free State
, which was granted much earlier in 1922, and with the ambassadorship of Joseph P. Kennedy to the Court of St. James's
beginning in 1938.
, there was widespread opposition to possible American intervention in European affairs. This was highlighted in a series of Neutrality Acts which were ratified by the United States Congress in 1935, 1936, and 1937 respectively. However, Franklin Roosevelt's policy of cash-and-carry still allowed the United Kingdom and France to order munitions from the United States.
Winston Churchill
, whose mother was an American, became prime minister after the Allies' failure to prevent the German invasion of Norway. After the fall of France, Franklin Roosevelt gave the United Kingdom and later the Soviet Union
all aid short of war. The Destroyers for Bases Agreement
which was signed in September 1940, gave the United States a ninety-nine-year rent-free lease of numerous land and air bases throughout the British Empire in exchange for the United Kingdom receiving possession of fifty destroyers from the United States Navy. Beginning in March 1941, the United States enacted Lend-Lease
in the form of Sherman tanks, fighter airplanes, munitions, bullets, food, and medical supplies which were sent to the United Kingdom, $31.4 billion out of a total of $50.1 billion ($700 billion in 2007) sent to the Allies.
Before the attack on Pearl Harbor
and the declaration of war by the United States Congress on Nazi Germany
and the Empire of Japan
in December 1941, two United States Navy destroyers had already been torpedoed on convoy duties in the North Atlantic Ocean. The United States nevertheless became extensively involved in the European theatre
due to the real and perceived threat of the Axis Powers
eventually reaching American shores, contingent on the Allies in Fortress Europe
and to another extent, the Allies in the Pacific War
, being defeated. 73,000 British and 60,000 Americans stormed the beaches of Normandy
on June 6, 1944, and both nations' armed forces fought alongside each other at the invasion of Sicily from July to August 1943, the Battle of Monte Cassino
from January to May 1944, Operation Market Garden
in September 1944, the Battle of Overloon
from September to October 1944, the Battle of the Bulge
from December 1944 to January 1945, and many other numerous battles in the China Burma India Theater of World War II
as well as the Pacific War. It was during this period of extremely close cooperation that the "Special Relationship" was created and conceptualized.
Millions of American servicemen were based in the United Kingdom during World War II, which led to a certain amount of friction with their British counterparts. This animosity was explored in art and film, most particularly A Matter of Life and Death and A Canterbury Tale.
As part of their military collaboration throughout the war, scientists and physicists from the United States, the United Kingdom, and many other countries, all under the control of the United States Army Corps of Engineers
and the administration of General Leslie Groves
, worked in total secrecy on the Manhattan Project
, which eventually achieved the objective of building an atomic bomb before Nazi Germany could obtain and use such a weapon. Scientific research during the Manhattan Project was directed and headed by an American theoretical physicist named Robert Oppenheimer
.
The United States and Britain during World War II met during three conferences at Tehran
in November 1943 and Yalta
in February 1945. The relationship between Churchill and Roosevelt was close after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 7, 1941 which the United States send troops to help Britain.
Also at the end of World War II Churchill had sent British Pacific Fleet to help the United States during the Battle of Okinawa
in 1945 to neutralize the Japanese air power. During the Potsdam Conference
in July 1945 President Truman received a secret of testing of atomic bombs and then he told Churchill about the secret.
went into relative decline as several of its overseas colonies began the process of de-colonization, most notably, the independence of India
which occurred in 1947.
Furthermore, the United Kingdom found itself at the mercy of American economic policy when the United States abruptly terminated lend-lease at the end of World War II. This fact was highlighted by the Anglo-American loan
made to the United Kingdom by the United States in 1946. At a 2% interest rate, the terms of this loan were $586 million (£145 million in 1945) and a $375 million line of credit which was to be paid off in 50 annual installments, the first payment being due in 1950. The United Kingdom deferred twice on repayment with the last payment of $83 million (£45.5 million) being sent to the United States Federal Reserve on December 31, 2006.
The United States and the United Kingdom became founding members of the United Nations
in 1945, as well as becoming two of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council
. In the post-war era, the United States and the United Kingdom were becoming increasingly suspicious of the motives of their former ally, the Soviet Union
. Rising tensions between the capitalist and communist powers led to the Cold War
. Thus, close cooperation between the United States and the United Kingdom resulted in the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization with their European allies, a mutual defense alliance whereby if one country is attacked, then it is seen as an attack on all countries.
On February 11, 1946, negotiators from the United Kingdom and the United States signed the Bermuda I Agreement
, a bilateral air transport agreement
which regulated commercial air transport between British and American airports.
The United States began practicing an anti-colonial and anti-communist stance in its foreign policy throughout the Cold War. Military forces from the United States and the United Kingdom were heavily involved in the Korean War
, fighting under a United Nations mandate. A withdrawal of military forces occurred when a stalemate was implemented in 1953. When the Suez Crisis
erupted in October 1956, the United States feared a wider war after the Soviet Union and the other Warsaw Pact
nations threatened to intervene on the Egyptian side. Thus, the United States demanded that the United Kingdom and France end their invasion of Egypt or otherwise face imminent economic sanctions which would in all probable causes, create an economic collapse in the United Kingdom and a severe devaluation of the sterling pound. This threat made by Dwight Eisenhower led to an immediate British and French withdrawal of their military occupation as well as the immediate resignation of Anthony Eden
in 1957.
Dwight D. Eisenhower's taking over the White House in January 1953 might have been expected to guarantee a continuance of good United States-United Kingdom relations, if not indeed a period of even closer collaboration. The record of Anglo-American cooperation during Eisenhower's presidency was trouble and checkered, approaching in 1956 a complete breakdown that represented the lowest point in the relation of the two countries since 1920s. During the years of 1953–1961 the British and US relation between Dwight D. Eisenhower and Winston Churchill restored wartime partnership. Winston Churchill became Prime Minister again in 1951, he restored the greatest partnership to his old post. But when Anthony Eden took over from Churchill in 1955 had first hand with experience of Anglo-American collaboration.
Through the US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement
signed in 1958, the United States assisted the United Kingdom in their own development of a nuclear arsenal
. In April 1963, John F. Kennedy
and Harold Macmillan
signed the Polaris Sales Agreement
to the effect of the United States agreeing to supply the UGM-27 Polaris
ballistic missile to the United Kingdom and for use in the Royal Navy's submarine fleet starting in 1968.
The United States gradually became involved in the Vietnam War
in the early 1960s, but received no support this time from the United Kingdom. Anti-Americanism
due to the Vietnam War and a lack of American support for France and the United Kingdom over the Suez Crisis weighed heavily on the minds of many in Europe. This sentiment extended in the United Kingdom by Harold Wilson's
refusal to send British troops to Indochina.
On July 23, 1977, officials from the United Kingdom and the United States renegotiated the previous Bermuda I Agreement, thus signing the Bermuda II Agreement
to the effect of only four combined airlines, two from the United Kingdom and two from the United States, being allowed to operate flights from London Heathrow Airport
and specified "gateway cities" in the United States. The Bermuda II Agreement was in effect for nearly 30 years until it was eventually replaced by the EU-US Open Skies Agreement
, which was signed on April 30, 2007 and entering into effect on March 30, 2008.
Throughout the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher
was strongly supportive of Ronald Reagan's
unwavering stance towards the Soviet Union. Often described as 'political soulmates' and a high point in the "Special Relationship
," both President Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher met on numerous occasions throughout their political careers, speaking in concert when confronting Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev
.
In 1982, the British Government made a request to the United States, which the Americans agreed upon in principle, to sell the Trident II D5 ballistic missile
, associated equipment, and related system support for use on four Vanguard class nuclear submarines in the Royal Navy. The Trident II D5 ballistic missile replaced the United Kingdom's previous use of the UGM-27 Polaris ballistic missile, beginning in the mid-1990s.
In the Falklands War
, the United States initially tried to mediate between the United Kingdom and Argentina
in 1982, but ultimately ended up supporting the United Kingdom's counter-invasion. The United States Defense Department under Caspar Weinberger
, supplied the British military with equipment as well as logistical support.
In October 1983, the United States and a coalition of Caribbean nations undertook Operation Urgent Fury, codename for the invasion of the Commonwealth
island nation of Grenada
. A bloody Marxist-coup had overrun Grenada and neighboring countries in the region asked the United States to intervene militarily, which it did successfully despite having made assurances to a deeply resentful British Government.
On April 15, 1986, the United States Air Force with elements of naval and marine forces launched Operation El Dorado Canyon
from RAF Fairford
, RAF Upper Heyford
, RAF Lakenheath
, and RAF Mildenhall
. Despite firm opposition from within the Conservative Party
, Margaret Thatcher nevertheless gave Ronald Reagan permission to use Royal Air Force stations in the United Kingdom during the bombings of Tripoli
and Benghazi
in Libya, a counter-attack by the United States in response to Muammar Gaddafi's
exportation of state-sponsored terrorism directed towards civilians and American servicemen stationed in West Berlin
.
On December 21, 1988, Pan American Worldways' Flight 103
from London Heathrow Airport
to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport
exploded over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 169 Americans and 40 Britons onboard. The motive that is generally attributed to the country of Libya can be traced back to a series of military confrontations with the United States Navy
that took place in the 1980s in the Gulf of Sidra
, the whole of which Libya claimed as its territorial waters. Despite a guilty verdict announced on January 31, 2001 by the Scottish High Court of Justiciary
which ruled against Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the alleged bomber on charges of murder and the conspiracy to commit murder, Libya had never formally admitted carrying out the 1988 bombing over Scotland until 2003.
During the Soviet war in Afghanistan
, the United States and the United Kingdom throughout the 1980s provided arms to the Mujahadeen rebels in Afghanistan until the last troops from the Soviet Union left Afghanistan on February 15, 1989.
after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, new threats emerged which confronted the United States and its NATO allies. With military build-up beginning in August 1990 and the use of force beginning in January 1991, the United States, followed by the United Kingdom, provided the two largest forces respectively for the coalition army which liberated Kuwait from Saddam Hussein's regime during the Persian Gulf War
.
In 1997, the British Labour Party was elected to office for the first time in eighteen years. The new prime minister, Tony Blair
, and Bill Clinton
both used the expression 'Third Way'
to describe their centre-left ideologies. In August 1997, the American people expressed solidarity with the British people, sharing in their grief and sense of shock on the death of Diana, Princess of Wales
, who perished in a car crash in Paris, France. Hillary Rodham Clinton
attended the funeral at Westminster Abbey
on September 6, 1997.
Throughout 1998 and 1999, the United States and the United Kingdom sent troops to impose peace during the Kosovo War
.
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2,669 Americans and 67 Britons at the World Trade Center
, The Pentagon
, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania
were victims of a terrorist plot orchestrated by the terrorist group known as al-Qaeda
on September 11, 2001. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks
, there was an enormous outpouring of sympathy from the United Kingdom for the American people, and Tony Blair was one of George W. Bush's
strongest international supporters for bringing al-Qaeda and the Taliban to justice. With permission from Queen Elizabeth II, the Star Spangled Banner was played in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace
during Guard Mounting
on September 12, 2001 in the presence of Prince Andrew, Duke of York
and then United States Ambassador to the Court of St. James's
, William Farish
.
The United States declared a War on Terror
following the attacks. British forces participated in the United States-led war in Afghanistan
and unlike France
, Canada
, Germany
, China
, and Russia
, the United Kingdom, as well as the Commonwealth
nation of Australia
, supported the United States-led invasion of Iraq
in 2003. The United States, followed closely by the United Kingdom, contributed the most troops to the coalition during the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the ensuing Iraq War which followed.
The July 7, 2005 London bombings
emphasized the difference in the nature of the terrorist threat to both nations. The United States concentrated primarily on global enemies, like the al-Qaeda
network and other Islamic extremists from the Middle East. The London bombings were carried out by homegrown extremist Muslims, and it emphasized the United Kingdom's threat from the radicalization of its own people.
By 2007, support amongst the British public for the Iraq war had plummeted. Despite Tony Blair's historically low approval ratings with the British people, mainly due to allegations of faulty government intelligence of Iraq
possessing weapons of mass destruction
, his unapologetic and unwavering stance for the United Kingdom's alliance with the United States can be summed up in his own words. He said, "We should remain the closest ally of the US... not because they are powerful, but because we share their values." The alliance between George W. Bush and Tony Blair seriously damaged the prime minister's standing in the eyes of many British citizens
. Tony Blair argued it is in the United Kingdom's interest to "protect and strengthen the bond" with the United States regardless of who is in the White House. However, a perception of one-sided compromising personal and political closeness led to serious discussion of the term "Poodle-ism" in the British media, to describe the "Special Relationship
" of the British Government and Prime Minister with the White House and President.
On March 31, 2009, Major General Andy Salmon of the British Army
formally handed over command of combat operations in Basra, Iraq to Major General Michael Oates of the 10th Mountain Division
of the United States Army
. This transition marked the beginning of the end of British occupation in southern Iraq. All British servicemen were withdrawn with the exception of 400 who remained in Iraq until July 31, 2009.
On June 11, 2009, the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda
accepted four Chinese Uighurs from the United States' detainment facility known as Guantanamo Bay detention camp located on the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base
in Cuba. At the request of the United States Government, Bermudan officials agreed to host Khaleel Mamut, Hozaifa Parhat
, Salahidin Abdulahat, and Abdullah Abdulqadirakhun as guest workers in Bermuda who seven years ago, were all captured by Pakistani bounty hunters during the United States-led invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001. This decision agreed upon by American and Bermudan officials drew considerable consternation and contempt by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
as it was viewed by British officials in London that they should have been consulted on whether or not the decision to take in four Chinese Uighurs was a security and foreign issue of which the Bermudian government does not have delegated responsibility over.
publicly announced during a media conference that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only person convicted of the terrorist plot which killed 169 Americans and 40 Britons on Pan American Worldways' Flight 103
over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland on December 21, 1988, was to be released from a Scottish jail on compassionate grounds based on medical advice verifying that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi has terminal cancer and an estimated three months left to live. After media reports showed Abdelbaset al-Megrahi at Tripoli International Airport
receiving a hero's welcome on Libyan soil, fury and mounting anger grew in the United States over the decision itself to release Abdelbaset al-Megrahi under the framework of Scottish law for a crime he was found guilty of committing on January 31, 2001 by the Scottish High Court of Justiciary
and one in which his sentence carried out was being revoked. The judges recommended a minimum of 20 years "in view of the horrendous nature of this crime." From the American viewpoint, the decision to release Abdelbaset al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds was seen as uncompassionate and insensitive to the memory of the victims of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
said that the decision made her "deeply disappointed." President Barack Obama
said that the decision was "highly objectionable" while FBI Director Robert Mueller
had even more strong words in an open letter written to Kenny MacAskill in which he said the decision to release Abdelbaset al-Megrahi "makes a mockery of the rule of law."
Prime Minister Gordon Brown
and several officials of the British Government declined to say whether or not they supported the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi as they repeatedly stressed that the decision was a devolved matter and under the sole authority of the Scottish Government. Nevertheless, serious questions arose as to whether or not a lucrative trade agreement or oil deal was made between Libya and the United Kingdom, contingent upon the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, as claimed by Saif Gaddafi, the son of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi
. After the release, Colonel Gaddafi stated, "And I say to my friend Brown, the prime minister of Britain , his government, the Queen of Britain, Elizabeth, and Prince Andrew, who all contributed to encouraging the Scottish government to take this historic and courageous decision, despite the obstacles." In response to all accusations made in the media, Lord Mandelson
, the United Kingdom's Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills made a rebuttal by saying, "It's not only completely wrong to make such a suggestion, it's also quite offensive."
Surrounding the controversy of releasing Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and the allegations of a trade deal between Libya and the United Kingdom, a backlash of angry protesters in the United States called for a boycott of Scotland. A web site in the form of an online petition was launched soon thereafter with a list of e-mail addresses of Scottish and British politicians, contact details of Scottish newspapers, and a list of Scottish products and companies for the American people to economically boycott. The online web petition claimed that a boycott of Scotland was the "only way to send a clear and direct message" of American contempt. Grassroots campaigns also took hold on social networking sites such as Twitter
and Facebook
, while there were calls to have Scotch whisky
renamed as 'Freedom Liquor.'
In the aftermath of the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, several commentators suggested that British-American relations have been damaged due to the actions of the Scottish Government. Others in the media as well as in government circles have even questioned whether or not the "Special Relationship
" developed between the United Kingdom and the United States during World War II still exists. David Rivkin, a former official of the United States Department of Justice said, "This will damage US relations with Britain for years to come."
However, Louis Susman
, the United States Ambassador to the Court of St. James's said that although the decision made by Scotland to release Abdelbaset al-Megrahi on the grounds of compassion was seen by the United States as extremely regrettable, relations with the United Kingdom would remain fully intact and strong. Despite these assurances made by the United States, sceptics such as Susan Stewart, a former diplomat of Scottish Affairs contended that Scotland's standing and negative image in the United States resulted in a setback of Scottish-American relations where only a 'diplomatic charm offensive' on the behalf of Scotland could repair the damage already done.
drilling rig led to diplomatic friction and populist Anti-British sentiment
, even though the Rig was owned and operated by the American company Transocean
. Commentators referred to "British Petroleum" even though the company had been known as "BP" since 1998. UK politicians expressed concerns about Anti-British rhetoric in the USA. BP's CEO Tony Hayward
was called "the most hated man in America". Conversely, the widespread public demonisation of BP and the effects on the company and its image, coupled with Obama's statements with regard to BP caused a degree of Anti-American sentiment in the UK. This was particularly evidenced by the comments of the Business Secretary Vince Cable, who said that "It's clear that some of the rhetoric in the US is extreme and unhelpful", for reasons of British pension funds, loss of revenues for the exchequer and the adverse effect such the rhetoric was having on the share price of one of the UK's largest companies.
The meeting between Barack Obama and David Cameron in July somewhat helped strained diplomatic relations, and President Obama stated that there lies a "truly special relations" between the two countries. The degree to which Anti-British or Anti-American hostilities continue to exist, remains to be seen.
Present British policy is that the relationship with the United States represents the United Kingdom's "most important bilateral relationship" in the world. United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
paid tribute to the relationship in February 2009 by saying, "it stands the test of time".
On March 3, 2009, Gordon Brown
made his first visit to the Obama White House. During his visit, he presented the president a gift in the form of a pen holder carved from HMS Gannet
, which served anti-slavery missions off the coast of Africa. Barack Obama’s
gift to the prime minister was a box of 25 DVDs with movies including Star Wars
and E.T.
—all of which were Region 1 disks, unplayable on most machines sold outside the United States. The wife of the prime minister, Sarah Brown
, gave the Obama daughters, Sasha and Malia, two dresses from British clothing retailer Topshop
, and a few unpublished books that have not reached the United States. Michelle Obama
gave the prime minister's sons two Marine One
helicopter toys. During this visit to the United States, Gordon Brown made an address to a joint session of the United States Congress
, a privilege rarely accorded to foreign heads of government.
On June 13, 2009, Michelle Obama and her two children, Sasha Obama and Malia Obama, had a private audience with Queen Elizabeth II. During this visit, the Obama children were granted a rare and unprecedented three-hour tour of the State rooms at Buckingham Palace. The Queen and the First Lady are known to have discussed their mutual love of gardening, the countryside, and fashion. Michelle Obama did, however, cause controversy when she apparently touched the Queen, Mrs Obama apparently putting her hand on the Queen's back. The breach of royal protocol was not noticed by the Queen.
In March 2009, a Gallup poll was conducted by means of a telephone survey of 1,023 adults in the United States. Of those surveyed, 36% identified the United Kingdom as their country's "most valuable ally", followed by Canada, Japan, Israel, and Germany rounding out the top five. The poll also indicated that 89% of Americans view the United Kingdom favorably, second only to Canada with 90%. According to the Pew Research Center
, a global survey conducted in July 2009 revealed that 70% of Britons who responded had a favorable view of the United States.
Former United Kingdom Secretary of State for Defence
Liam Fox
criticized minor American defense adjustments and announced that British military spending will be cut by a level expected to be 10 to 20 percent.
Minor British public dissatisfaction was experienced during the United States-executed rescue attempt of British aid worker Linda Norgrove who had been taken hostage by members of the Taliban in the Kunar Province
of Afghanistan
when it emerged she may have been accidentally killed by a grenade thrown by one of the U.S. special forces soldiers. Many members of the British public did not understand why the soldiers would have been using grenades in a hostage situation. Largely, however the British public united behind David Cameron's decision to mount a rescue attempt and agreed her death was as a result of the actions of the kidnappers, with only 24% deeming the U.S. forces to have been responsible. In addition to this on January 11th 2011 the Daily Mail released a story in which it is revealed that Barack Obama values the French more than the British as allies. On the same page it is made apparent that Obama snubbed meetings with former Prime Minister Gordon Brown. However the same page has comments from the American public who do not share the same view as President Obama.
In February 2011, The Daily Telegraph
, based on evidence from Wikileaks
, reported that the United States had tendered sensitive information about the British Trident nuclear arsenal
(whose missile delivery systems are manufactured and maintained in the United States) to the Russian Federation as part of a deal to encourage Russia to ratify the New START Treaty. Professor Malcolm Chalmers of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies speculated that serial numbers could undermine Britain's non-verification policy by providing Russia "with another data point to gauge the size of the British arsenal".
On May 25th 2011, during his official visit to the UK, President Barack Obama
reaffirmed the relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States of America in an address to Parliament at Westminster Hall. Amongst other points, Obama stated: "I've come here today to reaffirm one of the oldest; one of the strongest alliances the World has ever known. It's long been said that the United States and The United Kingdom share a special relationship."
The United States and the United Kingdom share the world's largest foreign direct investment partnership. In 2005, American direct investment in the United Kingdom totaled $324 billion while British direct investment in the United States totaled $282 billion.
is the most popular international destination for people flying out of London Heathrow Airport
. Approximately 2,802,870 people on multiple daily non-stop flights flew from Heathrow to JFK in 2008. Concorde
, British Airway's flagship supersonic airliner, began trans-Atlantic service to Washington Dulles International Airport
in the United States on May 24, 1976. After the United States Supreme Court ruled on October 17, 1977 to lift a lower court's ban on sonic boom
over the skies of New York City, the traditional trans-Atlantic route between London's Heathrow and New York's JFK in under 3½ hours, had its first operational flight between the two hubs on October 19, 1977 and the last being on October 23, 2003.
Cunard Line
, a British shipping company which is owned jointly by a British-American-Panama
nian parent company, Carnival Corporation, provides seasonal trans-Atlantic crossings aboard the RMS Queen Mary 2
and the MS Queen Victoria
between Southampton
and New York City
.
Also, both the USA and the UK continue to use Imperial for road signs.
as well as two British monarchs
. Throughout her lifetime, Queen Elizabeth II has met a total of eleven presidents (Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr, and Obama), with the notable exception of Lyndon B. Johnson
and she also met former President Herbert Hoover
(1929–33) in 1957.
Of United Kingdom
The Strategic Alliance Cyber Crime Working Group is an initiative by Australia
, Canada
, New Zealand
, the United Kingdom and headed by the United States as a "formal partnership between these nations dedicated to tackling larger global crime issues, particularly organized crime." The cooperation consists of "five countries from three continents banding together to fight cyber crime in a synergistic way by sharing intelligence, swapping tools and best practices, and strengthening and even synchronizing their respective laws."
Within this initiative, there is increased information sharing between the United Kingdom's Serious Organised Crime Agency
and the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation
on matters relating to serious fraud or cyber crime.
which was signed in 1943. In association with the ECHELON
system, all five nations are assigned to intelligence collection and analysis from different parts of the world. For example, the United Kingdom hunts for communications in Europe
, Africa
, and Russia
west of the Ural Mountains whereas the United States has responsibility for gathering intelligence in Latin America
, Asia
, Asiatic Russia, and northern mainland China
.
Billericay, England, UK
and
Billerica, Massachusetts, USA
Billericay, England, UK
and 
Fishers, Indiana, USA
Birmingham, England, UK
and 
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Bodmin, England, UK and 
Grass Valley, California, USA
Boston, England, UK
and Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Burton-upon-Trent, England, UK
and Elkhart, Indiana, USA
Cheltenham, England, UK
and 
Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, USA Chester, England, UK
and 
Lakewood, Colorado, USA
Coventry, England, UK
and 
Coventry, Connecticut, USA
Coventry, England, UK
and 
Coventry, New York, USA
Coventry, England, UK
and 
Coventry, Rhode Island, USA
Doncaster, England, UK
and 
Wilmington, North Carolina, USA
Durham, England, UK and Durham, North Carolina, USA
Gravesend, England, UK
and 
Chesterfield, Virginia, USA Hertford, England, UK
and Hartford, Connecticut, USA
Kettering, England, UK
and 
Kettering, Ohio, USA
Kingston-upon-Hull, England, UK and Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Leeds, England, UK
and 
Louisville, Kentucky, USA
London, England, UK
and New York City, New York, USA
Manchester, England, UK
and Los Angeles, California, USA
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, UK
and 
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Oxford, England, UK
and 
Oxford, Michigan, USA
Plymouth, England, UK
and Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA Salisbury, England, UK
and 
Salisbury, Maryland, USA
Salisbury, England, UK
and Salisbury, North Carolina, USA
Sheffield, England, UK
and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Southampton, England, UK
and Hampton, Virginia, USA
Stratford-upon-Avon, England, UK
and Stratford, Connecticut, USA
Stroud, England, UK
and 
Stroud, Oklahoma, USA
Sunderland, England, UK and 
Washington D.C., USA Taunton, England, UK and Taunton, Massachusetts, USA
Warwick, England, UK
and Warwick, New York, USA
Warwick, England, UK
and Warwick, Rhode Island, USA
Whitby, England, UK
and 
Anchorage, Alaska, USA
Worcester, England, UK and Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
Aberdeen, Scotland, UK and 
Aberdeen, Washington, USA
Dundee, Scotland, UK and Alexandria, Virginia, USA
Dunfermline, Scotland, UK
and 
Sarasota, Florida, USA Edinburgh, Scotland, UK and San Diego, California, USA Inverness, Scotland, UK
and Inverness, Florida, USA
Prestwick, Scotland, UK and Vandalia, Ohio, USA
Stirling, Scotland, UK and Dunedin, Florida, USA
Stornoway, Scotland, UK and 
Pendleton, South Carolina, USA
Newport, Wales, UK and Annapolis, Maryland, USA
and Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA
Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK and 
Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, UK and Anderson, South Carolina, USA
Derry, Northern Ireland, UK
and Buffalo, New York, USA
Newtonabbey, Northern Ireland, UK
and 
Gilbert, Arizona, USA
Liverpool, England, UK
and Memphis, Tennessee, USA
Liverpool, England, UK
and 
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Newcastle, England, UK and 
Little Rock, Arkansas, USA
Wellingborough, England, UK
and 
Willingboro, New Jersey, USA
The United States shares with its mother country many threads of cultural heritage.
Unlike Britain, the U.S. remains highly religious, with the largest protestant denominations derivatives of British churches brought across the Atlantic by 18th century missionaries, such as the Baptists and Methodists. The Congregationalists and Episcopalians likewise have strong English roots. The American legal systems is largely based on English common law. The American system of local and government is rooted in English precedents, such as the offices of county courts and sheriffs.
In the area of economics and as two leading nations that both use a capitalist macroeconomic model, both the United Kingdom and the United States practice what is commonly referred to as an Anglo-Saxon economy
in which levels of regulation and taxes are low, and government provides a low to medium level of social services in return.
Since English
is the de facto language of the United Kingdom and the United States, both nations belong to the English-speaking world
. However, the common language which binds the peoples of the United Kingdom and the United States does come with small differences in spelling, pronunciation, and the meaning of words
.
Independence Day
, July 4, is a national celebration which commemorates the July 4, 1776 adoption of the Declaration of Independence
from the British Empire. American defiance of Britain is expressed in the American national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner, written during the War of 1812
as the Americans beat off an attack on Baltimore.
, Charles Dickens
, J. R. R. Tolkien
, Jackie Collins
, and J.K. Rowling in the United States, and American authors such as Harriet Beecher Stowe
, Mark Twain
, Ernest Hemingway
and Dan Brown
in Britain. Henry James
moved to Britain and was well known in both countries, as was T.S. Eliot. Eliot moved to England in 1914 and became a British subject in 1927. He was a dominant figure in literary criticism and greatly influenced the Modern period
of British literature
.
newspaper The Observer
includes a condensed copy of The New York Times
.
There is much crossover appeal in the modern entertainment culture of the United Kingdom and the United States. For example, Hollywood blockbuster movies made by Steven Spielberg
and George Lucas
have had a large effect on British audiences in the United Kingdom, while the James Bond
and Harry Potter
series of films have attracted high interest in the United States. Also, the animated films of Walt Disney
have continued to make an indelible mark and impression on British audiences, young and old, for almost 100 years. Films by Alfred Hitchcock
continuously make a lasting impact on a loyal fan base in the United States, as Alfred Hitchcock himself influenced notable American film makers such as John Carpenter
, in the horror and slasher film genres.
Production of films are often shared between the two nations, whether it be a concentrated use of British and American actors or the use of film studios located in London or Hollywood.
in New York City has toured London's West End theatre
over the years, with notable performances such as The Lion King
, Grease
, Wicked
, and Rent
. British productions, such as Mamma Mia! and several of Andrew Lloyd Webber's
musicals, including Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
, Cats
and The Phantom of the Opera
have found success on Broadway. For many years, the comedies
, histories
, and tragedies
written by English playwright William Shakespeare
have also proven to be overwhelmingly popular on the American stage.
, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
, Strictly Come Dancing
(Dancing With the Stars
), Top Gear Pop Idol
(American Idol
) and The X Factor
. Some American television shows re-created for the British market in more recent years include The Apprentice and Deal or No Deal. Popular American television shows that are currently popular in the United Kingdom include The Simpsons
, Modern Family
, South Park
, Scrubs
, Family Guy
, Friends
and the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
series.
The BBC
airs two networks in the United States, BBC America
and BBC World
. The American network PBS
collaborates with the BBC and rebroadcasts British television shows in the United States such as Monty Python's Flying Circus
, Keeping Up Appearances
, Doctor Who
, Nova
, and Masterpiece Theatre
. The BBC also frequently collaborates with American network HBO, showing recent American mini-series in the United Kingdom such as Rome
, John Adams
, Band of Brothers, and The Gathering Storm
. Likewise, the American network Discovery Channel
has partnered with the BBC by televising recent British mini-series in the United States such as Planet Earth
and The Blue Planet
, the latter popularly known as The Blue Planet: Seas of Life in the American format. The United States' public affairs channel C-Span
, broadcasts Prime Minister's Questions
every Sunday.
On some British digital television platforms, it is also possible to watch American television channels direct from the United Kingdom, such as Fox News, as well as American television channels tailored for British audiences such as CNBC Europe
, CNN Europe
, ESPN Classic UK
, Comedy Central UK, and FX UK
. The Super Bowl
, the National Football League's
championship tournament of American football
which occurs every February, has been broadcast in the United Kingdom since 1982.
American artists such as Madonna
, Tina Turner
, Cher
, Michael Jackson
, Bing Crosby
, Elvis Presley
, Bob Dylan
, Diana Ross
, Britney Spears
, Christina Aguilera
, Frank Sinatra
and Beyoncé
, are popular in the United Kingdom. British artists such as The Beatles
, The Rolling Stones
, Sting, The Who
, Shirley Bassey
, Tom Jones
, David Bowie
, The Spice Girls, The Bee Gees, Amy Winehouse
, KT Tunstall
, Leona Lewis
, Elton John
(Elton John recorded Candle in the Wind
which, to date, is the best ever selling single worldwide) and Coldplay
have achieved much success in the large American market. Undoubtedly, the popular music of both nations has had a strong sway on each other.
In the United Kingdom, many Hollywood films as well as Broadway musicals are closely associated and identified with the musical scores and soundtracks created by famous American composers such as George Gershwin
, Rodgers and Hammerstein
, Henry Mancini
, John Williams
, Alan Silvestri
, Jerry Goldsmith
, and James Horner
.
The Celtic music
of the United Kingdom has had a dynamic effect upon American music. In particular, the traditional music
of the Southern United States
is descended from traditional Celtic music and English folk music
of the colonial period, and the musical traditions of the South eventually gave rise to country music
and, to a lesser extent, American folk
.
The birth of jazz
, swing, big band
, and especially rock and roll
, all developed and originating in the United States, had greatly influenced the later development of rock music
in the United Kingdom, particularly British rock bands such as The Beatles
and the Rolling Stones, while its American precursor, the blues
, greatly influenced British electric rock.
Jamestown, Virginia
Jamestown was a settlement in the Colony of Virginia. Established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 14, 1607 , it was the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States, following several earlier failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke...
, to the present day, between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and the United States of America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
The United States is bound to Britain by shared history, a common language and legal system, culture, and kindred, ancestral lines in English Americans, Scottish Americans, and Welsh Americans, which can be traced back hundreds of years.
Through times of war and rebellion, peace and estrangement, as well as becoming friends and allies, Britain and the United States cemented these deeply rooted links during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
into what is known as the "Special Relationship
Special relationship
The Special Relationship is a phrase used to describe the exceptionally close political, diplomatic, cultural, economic, military and historical relations between the United Kingdom and the United States, following its use in a 1946 speech by British statesman Winston Churchill...
", still described by a leading commentator
Christiane Amanpour
Christiane Amanpour, CBE is anchor of ABC News's This Week and formerly chief international correspondent at CNN, where she worked for 27 years. She is a Board Member at the IWMF .-Early years:...
as "the key trans-Atlantic alliance", which the U.S. Senate Chair on European Affairs
Jeanne Shaheen
Jeanne Shaheen is an American politician, a member of the Democratic Party, and the Senior United States Senator from New Hampshire. The first woman in U.S. history to be elected as both a Governor and U.S. Senator, she was the first woman to be elected Governor of New Hampshire, serving from...
acknowledged in 2010 as "one of the cornerstones of stability around the world."
Today, the relationship with the United States represents the "most important bilateral partnership" in current British foreign policy
Foreign relations of the United Kingdom
The diplomatic foreign relations of the United Kingdom are implemented by the United Kingdom's Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The UK was the world's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Throughout history it has wielded significant influence upon other nations via the British...
while United States foreign policy affirms its relationship with the United Kingdom as one of its most important enduring bilateral relationships, as evidenced in aligned political affairs, mutual cooperation in the areas of trade, commerce, finance, technology, academics, as well as the arts and sciences; the sharing of government and military intelligence, and joint combat operations and peacekeeping
Peacekeeping
Peacekeeping is an activity that aims to create the conditions for lasting peace. It is distinguished from both peacebuilding and peacemaking....
missions carried out between the United States armed forces
United States armed forces
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard.The United States has a strong tradition of civilian control of the military...
and the British Armed Forces
British Armed Forces
The British Armed Forces are the armed forces of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.Also known as Her Majesty's Armed Forces and sometimes legally the Armed Forces of the Crown, the British Armed Forces encompasses three professional uniformed services, the Royal Navy, the...
. Britain has always been the biggest foreign investor in the USA and vice versa.
The United States and the United Kingdom are the largest economies and the most populous nodes of the Anglosphere
Anglosphere
Anglosphere is a neologism which refers to those nations with English as the most common language. The term can be used more specifically to refer to those nations which share certain characteristics within their cultures based on a linguistic heritage, through being former British colonies...
, with a combined population of over 370 million as of 2010.
Origins
After several failed attempts the first permanent English settlement in mainland North America came in 1607 at Jamestown
Jamestown, Virginia
Jamestown was a settlement in the Colony of Virginia. Established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 14, 1607 , it was the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States, following several earlier failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke...
in the Colony and Dominion of Virginia
Colony and Dominion of Virginia
The Colony of Virginia was the English colony in North America that existed briefly during the 16th century, and then continuously from 1607 until the American Revolution...
. By 1624, the Colony and Dominion of Virginia would cease as a charter colony administered by the Virginia Company of London as it became a crown colony
Crown colony
A Crown colony, also known in the 17th century as royal colony, was a type of colonial administration of the English and later British Empire....
. The Pilgrims were a small Protestant-sect based in England and Amsterdam; they sent a group of settlers on the Mayflower
Mayflower
The Mayflower was the ship that transported the English Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims, from a site near the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, , in 1620...
. After drawing up the Mayflower Compact
Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the colonists, later together known to history as the Pilgrims, who crossed the Atlantic aboard the Mayflower...
by which they gave themselves broad powers of self-governance, they established the Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony was an English colonial venture in North America from 1620 to 1691. The first settlement of the Plymouth Colony was at New Plymouth, a location previously surveyed and named by Captain John Smith. The settlement, which served as the capital of the colony, is today the modern town...
in 1620. In 1630 the Puritans established the much larger Massachusetts Bay Colony
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...
; they sought to reform the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
by creating a new and more pure church in the New World.
Other colonies followed in Province of Maine
Province of Maine
The Province of Maine refers to several English colonies of that name that existed in the 17th century along the northeast coast of North America, at times roughly encompassing portions of the present-day U.S. states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, as well as the Canadian provinces of Quebec...
(1622), Province of Maryland
Province of Maryland
The Province of Maryland was an English and later British colony in North America that existed from 1632 until 1776, when it joined the other twelve of the Thirteen Colonies in rebellion against Great Britain and became the U.S...
(1632), Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was one of the original English Thirteen Colonies established on the east coast of North America that, after the American Revolution, became the modern U.S...
(1636) and Connecticut Colony
Connecticut Colony
The Connecticut Colony or Colony of Connecticut was an English colony located in British America that became the U.S. state of Connecticut. Originally known as the River Colony, it was organized on March 3, 1636 as a haven for Puritan noblemen. After early struggles with the Dutch, the English...
(1636). Later came the founding of Province of Carolina
Province of Carolina
The Province of Carolina, originally chartered in 1629, was an English and later British colony of North America. Because the original Heath charter was unrealized and was ruled invalid, a new charter was issued to a group of eight English noblemen, the Lords Proprietors, in 1663...
(1663) (divided in 1729 into the Province of North Carolina
Province of North Carolina
The Province of North Carolina was originally part of the Province of Carolina in British America, which was chartered by eight Lords Proprietor. The province later became the U.S. states of North Carolina and Tennessee....
and the Province of South Carolina
Province of South Carolina
The South Carolina Colony, or Province of South Carolina, was originally part of the Province of Carolina, which was chartered in 1663. The colony later became the U.S. state of South Carolina....
). The Province of New Hampshire
Province of New Hampshire
The Province of New Hampshire is a name first given in 1629 to the territory between the Merrimack and Piscataqua rivers on the eastern coast of North America. It was formally organized as an English royal colony on October 7, 1691, during the period of English colonization...
was founded in 1691. Finally came Province of Georgia
Province of Georgia
The Province of Georgia was one of the Southern colonies in British America. It was the last of the thirteen original colonies established by Great Britain in what later became the United States...
in 1732.
The Province of New York
Province of New York
The Province of New York was an English and later British crown territory that originally included all of the present U.S. states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Vermont, along with inland portions of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine, as well as eastern Pennsylvania...
was formed from the conquered Dutch colony of New Netherland. In 1674, the Province of New Jersey
Province of New Jersey
The Province of New Jersey was one of the Middle Colonies of Colonial America and became the U.S. state of New Jersey in 1776. The province had originally been settled by Europeans as part of New Netherland, but came under English rule after the surrender of Fort Amsterdam in 1664, becoming a...
was split off from New York. In 1681 William Penn
William Penn
William Penn was an English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the future Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was an early champion of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful...
was awarded a royal charter in 1681 by King Charles II to found Province of Pennsylvania
Province of Pennsylvania
The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as Pennsylvania Colony, was founded in British America by William Penn on March 4, 1681 as dictated in a royal charter granted by King Charles II...
.
The colonies were operated separately, except for the short-lived Dominion of New England
Dominion of New England
The Dominion of New England in America was an administrative union of English colonies in the New England region of North America. The dominion was ultimately a failure because the area it encompassed was too large for a single governor to manage...
, which failed in 1689.
Migration
During the 17th century, an estimated 350,000 EnglishEnglish people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
and Welsh
Welsh people
The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...
migrants arrived as permanent residents in the Thirteen Colonies, which in the century after the Acts of Union 1707
Acts of Union 1707
The Acts of Union were two Parliamentary Acts - the Union with Scotland Act passed in 1706 by the Parliament of England, and the Union with England Act passed in 1707 by the Parliament of Scotland - which put into effect the terms of the Treaty of Union that had been agreed on 22 July 1706,...
, was surpassed in rate and number by Scottish
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
and Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
migrants.
The period of British settler colonization saw the introduction of liberal administrative, juridical, and market institutions positively associated with socioeconomic development. At the same time, colonial policy was also quasi-mercantilist
Mercantilism
Mercantilism is the economic doctrine in which government control of foreign trade is of paramount importance for ensuring the prosperity and security of the state. In particular, it demands a positive balance of trade. Mercantilism dominated Western European economic policy and discourse from...
, encouraging trade inside the Empire, and discouraging trade with other powers, and discouraging the rise of manufacturing in the colonies, which had been established to increase the trade and wealth of the mother country. Britain made much greater profits from the sugar trade of its commercial colonies in the Caribbean.
The introduction of coercive labor institutions was another feature of the colonial period. All of the Thirteen Colonies were involved in the slave trade. Slaves in the Middle Colonies
Middle Colonies
The Middle Colonies comprised the middle region of the Thirteen Colonies of the British Empire in Northern America. In 1776 during the American Revolution, the Middle Colonies became independent of Britain as the states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and Delaware.Much of the area was part of...
and New England Colonies
New England Colonies
The New England Colonies of British America included the colonies of Massachusetts Bay Colony, Connecticut Colony, Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and Province of New Hampshire. They were part of the Thirteen Colonies including the Middle Colonies and the Southern Colonies. These...
typically worked as house servants, artisans, laborers and craftsmen. Early on, slaves in the Southern Colonies
Southern Colonies
The Southern Colonies in North America were established by Europeans during the 16th and 17th centuries and consisted of olden South Carolina, North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia and Georgia. Their historical names were the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, the Province of Carolina, and the Province...
worked primarily in agriculture, on farms and plantations growing indigo, rice, cotton, and tobacco.
The French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
, fought between 1754 and 1763, was the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War was a global military war between 1756 and 1763, involving most of the great powers of the time and affecting Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines...
. The conflict, the fourth such colonial war
French and Indian Wars
The French and Indian Wars is a name used in the United States for a series of conflicts lasting 74 years in North America that represented colonial events related to the European dynastic wars...
between France
Early Modern France
Kingdom of France is the early modern period of French history from the end of the 15th century to the end of the 18th century...
and the Kingdom of Great Britain
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
in North America, resulted in the British acquisition of New France
New France
New France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Spain and Great Britain in 1763...
, with it French Catholic population. As part of the terms dictated in the Treaty of Paris
Treaty of Paris (1763)
The Treaty of Paris, often called the Peace of Paris, or the Treaty of 1763, was signed on 10 February 1763, by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement. It ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War...
signed in 1763, the French ceded control of French Louisiana
Louisiana (New France)
Louisiana or French Louisiana was an administrative district of New France. Under French control from 1682–1763 and 1800–03, the area was named in honor of Louis XIV, by French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle...
east of the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
to the British, which became known as the Indian Reserve
Indian Reserve (1763)
The Indian Reserve was a territory under British rule in North America set aside in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 for use by American Indians between 1763 and 1783....
.
American Revolution
The Thirteen Colonies
Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies were English and later British colonies established on the Atlantic coast of North America between 1607 and 1733. They declared their independence in the American Revolution and formed the United States of America...
gradually began to experience more limited self-government. Additionally, British mercantilist policies became more stringent, benefiting the mother country which resulted in trade restrictions, thereby limiting the growth of the colonial economy and artificially constraining colonial merchants' earning potential. Prefaced by debt accrued during the French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
of which the American Colonies were expected to help repay, tensions escalated from 1765 to 1775 over issues of taxation without representation and control by King George III
George III of the United Kingdom
George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
. Stemming from the Boston Massacre
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre, called the Boston Riot by the British, was an incident on March 5, 1770, in which British Army soldiers killed five civilian men. British troops had been stationed in Boston, capital of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, since 1768 in order to protect and support...
when British Redcoats
Red coat (British army)
Red coat or Redcoat is a historical term used to refer to soldiers of the British Army because of the red uniforms formerly worn by the majority of regiments. From the late 17th century to the early 20th century, the uniform of most British soldiers, , included a madder red coat or coatee...
opened fire on civilians in 1770, rebellion consumed the outraged colonists. The British Parliament earlier imposed a series of taxes such as the Stamp Act of 1765 and later on, the Tea Act of 1773
Tea Act
The Tea Act was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain. Its principal overt objective was to reduce the massive surplus of tea held by the financially troubled British East India Company in its London warehouses. A related objective was to undercut the price of tea smuggled into Britain's...
, of which an angry mob of colonists protested about in the Boston Tea Party
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a direct action by colonists in Boston, a town in the British colony of Massachusetts, against the British government and the monopolistic East India Company that controlled all the tea imported into the colonies...
by dumping chests of tea into Boston Harbor. The British Parliament responded to the defiance of the colonists by passing what the colonials called the Intolerable Acts
Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts or the Coercive Acts are names used to describe a series of laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 relating to Britain's colonies in North America...
in 1774. This course of events ultimately triggered the first shots fired in the Battles of Lexington and Concord
Battles of Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. They were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy , and Cambridge, near Boston...
in 1775 and effectively, the beginning of the American War of Independence itself. A British victory at the Battle of Bunker Hill
Battle of Bunker Hill
The Battle of Bunker Hill took place on June 17, 1775, mostly on and around Breed's Hill, during the Siege of Boston early in the American Revolutionary War...
in June 1775 would agitate tensions even further. While the goal of attaining independence was sought by a majority known as Patriots
Patriot (American Revolution)
Patriots is a name often used to describe the colonists of the British Thirteen United Colonies who rebelled against British control during the American Revolution. It was their leading figures who, in July 1776, declared the United States of America an independent nation...
, a minority known as Loyalists
Loyalist (American Revolution)
Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to the Kingdom of Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. At the time they were often called Tories, Royalists, or King's Men. They were opposed by the Patriots, those who supported the revolution...
wished to remain as British subjects indefinitely. However, when the Second Continental Congress
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that started meeting on May 10, 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after warfare in the American Revolutionary War had begun. It succeeded the First Continental Congress, which met briefly during 1774,...
convened in Philadelphia in May 1775, deliberations conducted by notable figures such as Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
, Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
, John Hancock
John Hancock
John Hancock was a merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts...
, Samuel Adams
Samuel Adams
Samuel Adams was an American statesman, political philosopher, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. As a politician in colonial Massachusetts, Adams was a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, and was one of the architects of the principles of American...
, and John Adams
John Adams
John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...
would eventually come to the conclusion of seeking full independence from the mother country. Thus, the Declaration of Independence
United States Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a...
, ratified on July 4, 1776, signed on August 2, 1776, and then sent to King George III for his review, was a radical and decisive break for its time.
Early in the war, British forces were driven back during the Boston campaign
Boston campaign
The Boston campaign was the opening campaign of the American Revolutionary War. The campaign was primarily concerned with the formation of American colonial irregular militia units, and their transformation into a unified Continental Army...
by colonial militia, retreating to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1776. However, the New York and New Jersey campaign
New York and New Jersey campaign
The New York and New Jersey campaign was a series of battles for control of New York City and the state of New Jersey in the American Revolutionary War between British forces under General Sir William Howe and the Continental Army under General George Washington in 1776 and the winter months of 1777...
as well as the Philadelphia campaign
Philadelphia campaign
The Philadelphia campaign was a British initiative in the American Revolutionary War to gain control of Philadelphia, which was then the seat of the Second Continental Congress...
saw numerous British victories at the Battle of Kip's Bay, the Battle of Long Island
Battle of Long Island
The Battle of Long Island, also known as the Battle of Brooklyn or the Battle of Brooklyn Heights, fought on August 27, 1776, was the first major battle in the American Revolutionary War following the United States Declaration of Independence, the largest battle of the entire conflict, and the...
, the Battle of White Plains
Battle of White Plains
The Battle of White Plains was a battle in the New York and New Jersey campaign of the American Revolutionary War fought on October 28, 1776, near White Plains, New York. Following the retreat of George Washington's Continental Army northward from New York City, British General William Howe landed...
, the Battle of Brandywine
Battle of Brandywine
The Battle of Brandywine, also known as the Battle of the Brandywine or the Battle of Brandywine Creek, was fought between the American army of Major General George Washington and the British-Hessian army of General Sir William Howe on September 11, 1777. The British defeated the Americans and...
, and the Battle of Germantown
Battle of Germantown
The Battle of Germantown, a battle in the Philadelphia campaign of the American Revolutionary War, was fought on October 4, 1777, at Germantown, Pennsylvania between the British army led by Sir William Howe and the American army under George Washington...
while the Continental Army
Continental Army
The Continental Army was formed after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War by the colonies that became the United States of America. Established by a resolution of the Continental Congress on June 14, 1775, it was created to coordinate the military efforts of the Thirteen Colonies in...
under the command of George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
defeated British forces at the Battle of Harlem Heights
Battle of Harlem Heights
The Battle of Harlem Heights was fought during the New York and New Jersey campaign of the American Revolutionary War. The action took place in what is now the Morningside Heights and west Harlem neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City on September 16, 1776....
, the Battle of Princeton
Battle of Princeton
The Battle of Princeton was a battle in which General George Washington's revolutionary forces defeated British forces near Princeton, New Jersey....
, and the Battle of Trenton
Battle of Trenton
The Battle of Trenton took place on December 26, 1776, during the American Revolutionary War, after General George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River north of Trenton, New Jersey. The hazardous crossing in adverse weather made it possible for Washington to lead the main body of the...
. In addition, a capture and occupation of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Philadelphia by British forces proved initially successful before they would eventually evacuate both cities in 1777 and 1778 respectively. Although British forces were victorious at the Siege of Fort Ticonderoga in 1777, the Saratoga campaign
Saratoga campaign
The Saratoga Campaign was an attempt by Great Britain to gain military control of the strategically important Hudson River valley in 1777 during the American Revolutionary War...
would result in the overwhelming favor of the Continental Army under the command of Horatio Gates
Horatio Gates
Horatio Lloyd Gates was a retired British soldier who served as an American general during the Revolutionary War. He took credit for the American victory at the Battle of Saratoga – Benedict Arnold, who led the attack, was finally forced from the field when he was shot in the leg – and...
, most notably at the Battles of Saratoga, and further underlined by the entry of the Kingdom of France
Early Modern France
Kingdom of France is the early modern period of French history from the end of the 15th century to the end of the 18th century...
in 1778. During the Siege of Savannah
Siege of Savannah
The Siege of Savannah or the Second Battle of Savannah was an encounter of the American Revolutionary War in 1779. The year before, the city of Savannah, Georgia, had been captured by a British expeditionary corps under Lieutenant-Colonel Archibald Campbell. The siege itself consisted of a joint...
in 1779, American and French forces made a failed attempt to retake the city of Savannah
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...
after it was captured by British forces a year earlier. In the Southern theatre
Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War
The Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War was the central area of operations in North America in the second half of the American Revolutionary War. During the first three years of the conflict, the primary military encounters had been in the north, focused on campaigns around the...
, colonial militias largely dominated the Southern Colonies until the Siege of Charleston
Siege of Charleston
The Siege of Charleston was one of the major battles which took place towards the end of the American Revolutionary War, after the British began to shift their strategic focus towards the American Southern Colonies. After about six weeks of siege, Continental Army Major General Benjamin Lincoln...
occurred and British forces took control of the city in 1780. The Battle of Camden
Battle of Camden
The Battle of Camden was a major victory for the British in the Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War...
and Battle of Guilford Courthouse were tactically decisive for British forces, although any future victories would come at a high cost as the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
became more weakened over time with mounting casualties and not enough manpower. Turning points in the war were during the Battle of King's Mountain in 1780 and the Battle of Cowpens
Battle of Cowpens
The Battle of Cowpens was a decisive victory by Patriot Revolutionary forces under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan, in the Southern campaign of the American Revolutionary War...
in 1781 when the Continental Army under the command of Daniel Morgan
Daniel Morgan
Daniel Morgan was an American pioneer, soldier, and United States Representative from Virginia. One of the most gifted battlefield tacticians of the American Revolutionary War, he later commanded troops during the suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion.-Early years:Most authorities believe that...
were deemed victorious over Banastre Tarleton's
Banastre Tarleton
General Sir Banastre Tarleton, 1st Baronet, GCB was a British soldier and politician.He is today probably best remembered for his military service during the American War of Independence. He became the focal point of a propaganda campaign claiming that he had fired upon surrendering Continental...
cavalry unit, the 1st King's Dragoon Guards
1st King's Dragoon Guards
The 1st King's Dragoon Guards was a cavalry regiment in the British Army. The regiment was formed in 1685 as The Queen's Regiment of Horse, named in honour of Queen Mary, consort of King James II. It was renamed The King's Own Regiment of Horse in 1714 in honour of George I...
. With limitations placed on successful war tactics, the long-term strategy of military commanders in the British Army such as Thomas Gage
Thomas Gage
Thomas Gage was a British general, best known for his many years of service in North America, including his role as military commander in the early days of the American War of Independence....
, Sir William Howe
William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe
William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe, KB, PC was a British army officer who rose to become Commander-in-Chief of British forces during the American War of Independence...
, Henry Clinton, John Burgoyne
John Burgoyne
General John Burgoyne was a British army officer, politician and dramatist. He first saw action during the Seven Years' War when he participated in several battles, mostly notably during the Portugal Campaign of 1762....
, and most notably Lord Charles Cornwallis
Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis
Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis KG , styled Viscount Brome between 1753 and 1762 and known as The Earl Cornwallis between 1762 and 1792, was a British Army officer and colonial administrator...
, failed to defeat the Continental Army and French. The tipping point came on October 19, 1781 when Lord Cornwallis' subordinate, Charles O'Hara
Charles O'Hara
General Charles O'Hara was a British military officer who served in the Seven Years War, American War of Independence, and French Revolutionary War, and later served as Governor of Gibraltar...
surrendered his sword to George Washington's subordinate, Benjamin Lincoln
Benjamin Lincoln
Benjamin Lincoln was an American army officer. He served as a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War...
at the Siege of Yorktown
Siege of Yorktown
The Siege of Yorktown, Battle of Yorktown, or Surrender of Yorktown in 1781 was a decisive victory by a combined assault of American forces led by General George Washington and French forces led by the Comte de Rochambeau over a British Army commanded by Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis...
.
In 1783, the original thirteen states which created one independent and sovereign nation known as the United States of America, was recognized by the Kingdom of Great Britain
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
in the mutual terms agreed upon by both sides in the Treaty of Paris
Treaty of Paris (1783)
The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War between Great Britain on the one hand and the United States of America and its allies on the other. The other combatant nations, France, Spain and the Dutch Republic had separate agreements; for details of...
. In 1785, John Adams
John Adams
John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...
was appointed the first American plenipotentiary minister, now known as an ambassador, to the Court of St. James's
Court of St. James's
The Court of St James's is the royal court of the United Kingdom. It previously had the same function in the Kingdom of England and in the Kingdom of Great Britain .-Overview:...
. In 1791, Great Britain sent its first diplomatic envoy, George Hammond
George Hammond (diplomat)
George Hammond was a British diplomat and the first British envoy to the United States from 1791 to 1795.-Early career:Hammond came from East Riding of Yorkshire, enjoyed a liberal education, and was a Master of Arts and Fellow of Merton College, Oxford...
, to the United States.
When Great Britain and France went to war in 1793, relations between the United States and Great Britain as well verged on war. Tensions were subdued when the Jay Treaty
Jay Treaty
Jay's Treaty, , also known as Jay's Treaty, The British Treaty, and the Treaty of London of 1794, was a treaty between the United States and Great Britain that is credited with averting war,, resolving issues remaining since the Treaty of Paris of 1783, which ended the American Revolution,, and...
was signed in 1794, which established a decade of peace and prosperous trade relations. The international slave trade was gradually suppressed after Great Britain passed the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act
Slave Trade Act
The Slave Trade Act was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom passed on 25 March 1807, with the long title "An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade". The original act is in the Parliamentary Archives...
in 1807, and the United States passed a similar law in 1808.
War of 1812
Embargo Act of 1807
The Embargo Act of 1807 and the subsequent Nonintercourse Acts were American laws restricting American ships from engaging in foreign trade between the years of 1807 and 1812. The Acts were diplomatic responses by presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison designed to protect American interests...
, in retaliation for the United Kingdom’s blockade of France, which involved the visit and search of neutral merchantmen, and resulted in the suppression of Franco-United States trade for the duration of the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
. The Royal Navy also boarded American ships and impressed
Impressment
Impressment, colloquially, "the Press", was the act of taking men into a navy by force and without notice. It was used by the Royal Navy, beginning in 1664 and during the 18th and early 19th centuries, in wartime, as a means of crewing warships, although legal sanction for the practice goes back to...
sailors suspected of being British deserters.
The War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
was initiated by the United States under James Madison
James Madison
James Madison, Jr. was an American statesman and political theorist. He was the fourth President of the United States and is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being the primary author of the United States Constitution and at first an opponent of, and then a key author of the United...
partly to protect American trading rights and freedom of the seas for neutral countries. Another motivation was American anger over British military support for Native Americans
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
defending their tribal lands from encroaching American pioneers. Additionally, the United States' ambition for territorial expansion northward and westward was reflected in a belief in Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny was the 19th century American belief that the United States was destined to expand across the continent. It was used by Democrat-Republicans in the 1840s to justify the war with Mexico; the concept was denounced by Whigs, and fell into disuse after the mid-19th century.Advocates of...
.
A planned American invasion of British North America
British North America
British North America is a historical term. It consisted of the colonies and territories of the British Empire in continental North America after the end of the American Revolutionary War and the recognition of American independence in 1783.At the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775 the British...
, including the destruction of the colonial capital of York
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
and victory at the Battle of York
Battle of York
The Battle of York was a battle of the War of 1812 fought on 27 April 1813, at York, Upper Canada . An American force supported by a naval flotilla landed on the lake shore to the west, defeated the defending British force and captured the town and dockyard...
in April 1813, was countered when on August 24, 1814, the burning of Washington
Burning of Washington
The Burning of Washington was an armed conflict during the War of 1812 between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the United States of America. On August 24, 1814, led by General Robert Ross, a British force occupied Washington, D.C. and set fire to many public buildings following...
saw the United States Treasury Building
Treasury Building (Washington, D.C.)
The Treasury Building in Washington, D.C. is a National Historic Landmark building which is the headquarters of the United States Department of the Treasury....
razed and the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
burned. British forces would again prove victorious on that same day at the Battle of Bladensburg
Battle of Bladensburg
The Battle of Bladensburg took place during the War of 1812. The defeat of the American forces there allowed the British to capture and burn the public buildings of Washington, D.C...
. Some but not all land attacks made by American forces northward into British North America, such as the Battle of the Chateauguay in October 1813 and the Battle of Crysler's Farm
Battle of Crysler's Farm
The Battle of Crysler's Farm, also known as the Battle of Crysler's Field, was fought on 11 November 1813, during the Anglo-American War of 1812. A British and Canadian force won a victory over an American force which greatly outnumbered them...
in November 1813, were repulsed by British forces. However, American forces also won victories at the Battle of the Thames
Battle of the Thames
The Battle of the Thames, also known as the Battle of Moraviantown, was a decisive American victory in the War of 1812. It took place on October 5, 1813, near present-day Chatham, Ontario in Upper Canada...
in October 1813 and the Battle of Longwoods
Battle of Longwoods
The Battle of Longwoods took place during the Anglo-American War of 1812. On 4 March 1814, a mounted American raiding party defeated an attempt by British regulars, volunteers from the Canadian militia and Native Americans to intercept them near Wardsville, in present-day Southwest Middlesex,...
in March 1814. The United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
gained naval supremacy over the Great Lakes
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
by defeating the Royal Navy at the Battle of Lake Erie
Battle of Lake Erie
The Battle of Lake Erie, sometimes called the Battle of Put-in-Bay, was fought on 10 September 1813, in Lake Erie off the coast of Ohio during the War of 1812. Nine vessels of the United States Navy defeated and captured six vessels of Great Britain's Royal Navy...
in September 1813 and at the Battle of Plattsburgh
Battle of Plattsburgh
The Battle of Plattsburgh, also known as the Battle of Lake Champlain, ended the final invasion of the northern states during the War of 1812...
in September 1814. Beginning on September 12, 1814, and lasting for another three days, British forces were also repulsed at the Battle of Baltimore
Battle of Baltimore
The Battle of Baltimore was a combined sea/land battle fought between British and American forces in the War of 1812. It was one of the turning points of the war as American forces repulsed sea and land invasions of the busy port city of Baltimore, Maryland, and killed the commander of the invading...
.
Negotiations led to the Treaty of Ghent
Treaty of Ghent
The Treaty of Ghent , signed on 24 December 1814, in Ghent , was the peace treaty that ended the War of 1812 between the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
, which ended the war by restoring the status quo ante bellum. No territorial gains were made by either side. The U.S. negotiator Albert Gallatin
Albert Gallatin
Abraham Alfonse Albert Gallatin was a Swiss-American ethnologist, linguist, politician, diplomat, congressman, and the longest-serving United States Secretary of the Treasury. In 1831, he founded the University of the City of New York...
conceded: "Under the existing unpropitious circumstances of the world, America cannot by a continuance of the war compel Great Britain to yield any of the maritime points in dispute, and particularly to agree to any unsatisfactory arrangement on the subject of impressment; and that the most favorable terms of peace that can be expected are the status ante bellum." The United Kingdom retained the right of impressment and the United States dropped the issue for good.
The impressment controversy had in fact been largely resolved shortly after war had been declared, when the U.S. government, by enacting the Impressment Bill (1812), began to insist that applicants for U.S. citizenship must reside continuously in the United States for a minimum of five years, thereby inhibiting the reception of deserters and removing the source of British complaint, and therefore largely solving, with a stroke of Madison's pen, the problem the United States had ostensibly gone to war over.
As one of the peace terms, the United Kingdom agreed to return captured slaves, but subsequently paid the United States £350,000 for them. A British proposal to create an Indian buffer zone in Ohio and Michigan collapsed after the Indian coalition fell apart. The United States largely ignored the guarantees it made in article IX regarding American treatment of Native Americans.
Before word could be sent to field commanders that the war was over, a US force under General Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...
repulsed a British attack at the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815. Shortly afterwards, a US force was defeated at Fort Bowyer
Fort Bowyer
Fort Bowyer was a short-lived earthen and stockade fortification erected by the United States Army on Mobile Point, near the mouth of Mobile Bay in Baldwin County, Alabama. Built during the War of 1812, the fort was the site of two attacks by the British. The first, unsuccessful, attack led to the...
by a British force under John Lambert. The War of 1812 marked the end of a long period of conflict between the United Kingdom and the United States, and ushered in a new era of peace between the two nations, who would become allies nearly a century later.
In the words of one American historian
Bradford Perkins (historian)
Bradford Perkins was an American historian who spent the bulk of his career at the University of Michigan. He was the son of the historian Dexter Perkins.-Life:...
of the conflict: "Neither side sought the War of 1812, and in the short run it was tragically unnecessary."
Disputes 1815–1860
The Monroe DoctrineMonroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine is a policy of the United States introduced on December 2, 1823. It stated that further efforts by European nations to colonize land or interfere with states in North or South America would be viewed as acts of aggression requiring U.S. intervention...
, a unilateral response in 1823 to a British suggestion of a joint declaration, expressed American hostility of further European encroachment in the Western hemisphere
Western Hemisphere
The Western Hemisphere or western hemisphere is mainly used as a geographical term for the half of the Earth that lies west of the Prime Meridian and east of the Antimeridian , the other half being called the Eastern Hemisphere.In this sense, the western hemisphere consists of the western portions...
. Nevertheless, the United States benefited from the common outlook in British policy and its enforcement by the Royal Navy.
After the Panic of 1837
Panic of 1837
The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis or market correction in the United States built on a speculative fever. The end of the Second Bank of the United States had produced a period of runaway inflation, but on May 10, 1837 in New York City, every bank began to accept payment only in specie ,...
, numerous states in the United States defaulted on bonds owned by British investors. During the Caroline Affair
Caroline affair
The Caroline affair was a series of events beginning in 1837 that strained relations between the United States and Britain....
in 1837, British North America
British North America
British North America is a historical term. It consisted of the colonies and territories of the British Empire in continental North America after the end of the American Revolutionary War and the recognition of American independence in 1783.At the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775 the British...
n rebels fled to New York and used a small American ship called the Caroline to smuggle supplies into British North America after a failed rebellion there. In late 1837, militia from British North America burned the ship, leading to diplomatic protests, an unquenched sense of Anglophobia
Anglophobia
Anglophobia means hatred or fear of England or the English people. The term is sometimes used more loosely for general Anti-British sentiment...
, and other incidents.
Additional conflicts on the Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
-New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
border involved rival teams of lumberjacks in the Aroostook War
Aroostook War
The Aroostook War was an undeclared nonviolent confrontation in 1838/1839 between the United States and Great Britain over the international boundary between British North America and Maine. The compromise resolution win a mutually accepted border between the state of Maine and the provinces of...
. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty
Webster-Ashburton Treaty
The Webster–Ashburton Treaty, signed August 9, 1842, was a treaty resolving several border issues between the United States and the British North American colonies...
, signed in 1842, resolved these issues and finalized the border. In 1859, the Pig War
Pig War
The Pig War was a confrontation in 1859 between the United States and the British Empire over the boundary between the US and British North America. The territory in dispute was the San Juan Islands, which lie between Vancouver Island and the North American mainland...
determined the question of where the border should be in relationship to the San Juan Islands
San Juan Islands
The San Juan Islands are an archipelago in the northwest corner of the contiguous United States between the US mainland and Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The San Juan Islands are part of the U.S...
and Gulf Islands
Gulf Islands
The Gulf Islands are the islands in the Strait of Georgia , between Vancouver Island and the mainland of British Columbia, Canada....
.
1859 was also a year of early signs of British-American co-operation when a British naval force under the command of Admiral Sir James Hope attempted to seize the Tako Forts
Battle of Taku Forts (1859)
The Second Battle of Taku Forts, in June 1859, was an Anglo-French attack on a series of Chinese forts protecting Taku, China during the Second Opium War...
guarding the mouth of the Peiho river in northeastern China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. The action was witnessed by American Commodore
Commodore (USN)
Commodore was an early title and later a rank in the United States Navy and United States Coast Guard and a current honorary title in the U.S. Navy with an intricate history. Because the U.S. Congress was originally unwilling to authorize more than four ranks until 1862, considerable importance...
Josiah Tattnall
Josiah Tattnall
Commodore Josiah Tattnall, Jr. was an officer in the United States Navy during the War of 1812, the Second Barbary War, and the Mexican-American War. He later served in the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War....
, who had fought in the War of 1812, and, on this occasion, was supposed to be just a neutral observer. However, he eventually went to the assistance of the British gunboat Plover, offering to take off their wounded. The offer was accepted and the wounded evacuated. Later, Tattnall discovered that some of his men were black from powder flashes. When asked, the men replied that the British had been short-handed with the bow
Bow (ship)
The bow is a nautical term that refers to the forward part of the hull of a ship or boat, the point that is most forward when the vessel is underway. Both of the adjectives fore and forward mean towards the bow...
gun. In his famous report sent to Washington soon afterwards, Tattnall claimed that "Blood is thicker than water". Although the British and Americans had fought side-by-side, the action was unofficial — and the Americans were supposed to be neutral observers.
American Civil War
At the beginning of the American Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, the United Kingdom issued a proclamation of neutrality on May 13, 1861. Nevertheless, the Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
assumed that the British would prove sympathetic, despite their negative view on slavery. Although the Confederacy attempted to provoke British intervention through cotton diplomacy
Cotton diplomacy
During the 1850s and the American Civil War, cotton diplomacy was the idea that Britain and France required cotton from the South...
, leading to failed threats of a trade embargo on "King Cotton
King Cotton
King Cotton was a slogan used by southerners to support secession from the United States by arguing cotton exports would make an independent Confederacy economically prosperous, and—more important—would force Great Britain and France to support the Confederacy because their industrial economy...
," it was the Trent Affair
Trent affair
The Trent Affair, also known as the Mason and Slidell Affair, was an international diplomatic incident that occurred during the American Civil War...
in 1861, when the USS San Jacinto
USS San Jacinto (1850)
The first USS San Jacinto was an early screw frigate in the United States Navy during the mid-19th century. She was named for the San Jacinto River, site of the Battle of San Jacinto during the Texas Revolution. She is perhaps best known for her role in the Trent Affair of 1861.San Jacinto was laid...
stopped the British civilian vessel RMS Trent
RMS Trent
RMS Trent was a British Royal Mail paddle steamer built in 1841 by William Pitcher of Northfleet for the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company. She measured 1,856 gross tons and could carry 60 passengers....
and took off two Confederate diplomats named James Murray Mason and John Slidell
John Slidell
John Slidell was an American politician, lawyer and businessman. A native of New York, Slidell moved to Louisiana as a young man and became a staunch defender of southern rights as a U.S. Representative and Senator...
, that almost provoked a third war between the United Kingdom and the United States. While diplomatic measures between London and Washington were ongoing, the British under Lord Palmerston began mobilizing a small militia in British North America who were unprepared in the event of a full-scale invasion of up to an estimated 200,000 soldiers in the Union Army
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
.
The United Kingdom knew that any recognition of a sovereign and independent nation called the Confederate States would be an act of war against the United States. In addition, the United Kingdom had to take into consideration that the British economy was heavily reliant on growing trade with the United States, most notably cheap grain
GRAIN
GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. Our support takes the form of independent research and analysis, networking at local, regional and...
imports high in demand which in the event of war, would be cut off by the Americans. Third, the British knew that the United States had an indispensable European ally, the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
to help fight in a possible war against the United Kingdom . And lastly, British forces in British North America
British North America
British North America is a historical term. It consisted of the colonies and territories of the British Empire in continental North America after the end of the American Revolutionary War and the recognition of American independence in 1783.At the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775 the British...
were vastly outnumbered by the Union Army which if British war tactics proved to be unsuccessful, the risk of annexation of British North America by the United States might be inevitable.
The British were content with a formal apology on behalf of the United States so that war could be averted over lingering issues revolving around the Trent Affair. Thus, Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
eventually relented as he did not want to fight a war on two fronts, having United States Secretary of State William H. Seward
William H. Seward
William Henry Seward, Sr. was the 12th Governor of New York, United States Senator and the United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson...
smooth matters over.
Despite outrage and intense American protests, the United Kingdom allowed the British-built CSS Alabama
CSS Alabama
CSS Alabama was a screw sloop-of-war built for the Confederate States Navy at Birkenhead, United Kingdom, in 1862 by John Laird Sons and Company. Alabama served as a commerce raider, attacking Union merchant and naval ships over the course of her two-year career, during which she never anchored in...
to leave port as a commerce raider under the naval flag of the Confederacy. After the American Civil War ended in 1865, the United Kingdom abided by the terms of the Treaty of Washington
Treaty of Washington (1871)
The Treaty of Washington was a treaty signed and ratified by Great Britain and the United States in 1871 that settled various disputes between the countries, in particular the Alabama Claims.-Background:...
outlined by an arbitration of an international tribunal in 1871, thus paying $15.5 million in gold to the United States for the destruction caused by the CSS Alabama, while admitting no guilt.
Venezuelan and border disputes
When the United Kingdom and VenezuelaVenezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
disputed the boundary between the latter country and British Guiana
British Guiana
British Guiana was the name of the British colony on the northern coast of South America, now the independent nation of Guyana.The area was originally settled by the Dutch at the start of the 17th century as the colonies of Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice...
in 1895, President Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. Cleveland is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents...
and Secretary of State Richard Olney
Richard Olney
Richard Olney was an American statesman. He served as both United States Attorney General and Secretary of State under President Grover Cleveland. As attorney general, Olney used injunctions against striking workers in the Pullman strike, setting a precedent, and advised the use of federal troops,...
pressured the British into agreeing to an international arbitration. In 1898, a tribunal convened in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to decide the matter in question, and thus issued its verdict in 1899, awarding the bulk of the disputed territory to British Guiana. Despite this setback for the United States, it showed that standing with a Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
n nation against the encroachment of the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
improved relations with the United States' southern neighbors. However, the cordial manner in which the negotiations were conducted by the United States also improved diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom.
Alaska purchase
The Alaska Purchase was the acquisition of the Alaska territory by the United States from Russia in 1867 by a treaty ratified by the Senate. The purchase, made at the initiative of United States Secretary of State William H. Seward, gained of new United States territory...
in 1867, the United States inherited unresolved border disputes dating all the way back to 1821 over the Alaska Panhandle
Alaska Panhandle
Southeast Alaska, sometimes referred to as the Alaska Panhandle, is the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Alaska, which lies west of the northern half of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The majority of Southeast Alaska's area is part of the Tongass National Forest, the United...
between what was previously known as Russian Alaska
Russian Alaska
Russian America was the name of Russian colonial possessions in the Americas from 1733 to 1867 that today is the U.S. state of Alaska and settlements farther south in California and Hawaii...
and British North America. However, the Alaska boundary dispute
Alaska Boundary Dispute
The Alaska boundary dispute was a territorial dispute between the United States and Canada . It was resolved by arbitration in 1903. The dispute had been going on between the Russian and British Empires since 1821, and was inherited by the United States as a consequence of the Alaska Purchase in...
was finally resolved by an arbitration in 1903, agreed upon in the Hay-Herbert Treaty
Hay-Herbert Treaty
The Alaska boundary treaty, also known as the Hay–Herbert treaty, signed in 1903, is a treaty between Great Britain and United States that resolved a dispute on the location of the border between Alaska and Canada....
as a British judge sided with the United States and the District of Alaska
District of Alaska
The District of Alaska was the governmental designation for Alaska from May 17, 1884 to August 24, 1912, when it became Alaska Territory. Previously it had been known as the Department of Alaska. At the time, legislators in Washington, D.C., were occupied with post-Civil War reconstruction issues,...
against their neighbors, the Canadians, who were outraged that land and territorial waters in British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
were sacrificed for the benefit of British-American harmony.
The Great Rapprochement
The Great RapprochementThe Great Rapprochement
The Great Rapprochement, a term usually attributed to Bradford Perkins, is used to describe the convergence of social and political objectives between the United States and the United Kingdom and its colonies in the two decades before World War I....
is a term that was used to specifically describe the convergence of social and political objectives between the United Kingdom and the United States from 1895 until World War I began in 1914. Ever since the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
ended in 1815, exactly 80 years prior to when the Great Rapprochement began, relations between the United Kingdom and the United States were continuously and deeply troubled. However, the differences that had separated an industrialized United Kingdom and an agrarian, anti-imperialist United States where Anglophobia
Anglophobia
Anglophobia means hatred or fear of England or the English people. The term is sometimes used more loosely for general Anti-British sentiment...
ran high, rapidly diminished in the decades preceding World War I.
The most notable sign of improving relations during the Great Rapprochement was the United Kingdom's actions during the Spanish–American War. With the onslaught of war beginning in 1898, the British had an initial policy of supporting the Spanish Empire
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....
and its colonial rule over Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
since the perceived threat of American occupation and a territorial acquisition of Cuba by the United States might harm British trade and commerce interests within its own imperial possessions in the West Indies. However, after the United States made genuine assurances that it would grant Cuba's independence, which eventually occurred in 1902 under the terms dictated in the Platt Amendment
Platt Amendment
The Platt Amendment of 1901 was a rider appended to the Army Appropriations Act presented to the U.S. Senate by Connecticut Republican Senator Orville H. Platt replacing the earlier Teller Amendment. Approved on May 22, 1903, it stipulated the conditions for the withdrawal of United States troops...
, the British abandoned this policy and ultimately sided with the United States unlike most other European powers who supported Spain.
After victory in the Spanish-American War, the United States appeared to have its own rising empire due to its rapid acquisition of numerous overseas colonial possessions and had begun to build the Great White Fleet
Great White Fleet
The Great White Fleet was the popular nickname for the United States Navy battle fleet that completed a circumnavigation of the globe from 16 December 1907 to 22 February 1909 by order of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. It consisted of 16 battleships divided into two squadrons, along with...
as a newfound symbol of its enormous power projection and as a blue water navy. Seizing upon this notion, both the United Kingdom and the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
engaged in pro-American propaganda campaigns designed to win over a possible World War I alliance with the United States. The British in fact, were able to guarantee a price for American cotton producers, who were the most affected by the potential loss of trade with Germany and Central Europe.
World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the unrestricted activities of German agents against British interests, as well as the United States' refusal to check the Indian seditionist movement
Ghadar Conspiracy
The Ghadar Conspiracy was a conspiracy for a pan-Indian mutiny in the British Indian Army in February 1915 formulated by the Ghadar Party...
, was a major concern for the British Government that triggered an intense neutrality dispute through 1916. The British Far-Eastern Fleet's activities, especially the SS China and SS Henry S incidents drew strong responses from the United States, prompting the United States Atlantic Fleet
United States Fleet Forces Command
The United States Fleet Forces Command is an Atlantic Ocean theater-level component command of the United States Navy that provides naval resources that are under the operational control of the United States Northern Command...
to dispatch naval destroyers and battleships to the Pacific Ocean in order to protect the sovereignty of American vessels. However, this dispute did not calm down before November 1916.
Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
allowed a munitions trade to continue, despite disputes over freedom of the seas
Freedom of the seas
Freedom of the seas is a principle in the international law and law of the sea. It stresses freedom to navigate the oceans. It also disapproves of war fought in water. The freedom is to be breached only in a necessary international agreement....
because of the British naval blockade of Germany and complaints of German 'militarism'. Thus, the United States would only supply the Triple Entente
Triple Entente
The Triple Entente was the name given to the alliance among Britain, France and Russia after the signing of the Anglo-Russian Entente in 1907....
onwards.
As evidence of German complicity in public incidents, including the Black Tom explosion
Black Tom explosion
The Black Tom explosion on July 30, 1916 in Jersey City, New Jersey was an act of sabotage on American ammunition supplies by German agents to prevent the materiel from being used by the Allies in World War I.- Black Tom Island :...
, and conspiracies in and against the United States such as the Zimmerman Telegram, it became more obvious that American public opinion was becoming more influenced to the prospect of joining World War I. When the German Empire responded in 1916 with a submarine blockade of the United Kingdom and the sinking of the RMS Lusitania
RMS Lusitania
RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland. The ship entered passenger service with the Cunard Line on 26 August 1907 and continued on the line's heavily-traveled passenger service between Liverpool, England and New...
by a German U-boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
, it led to a protest by the United States and a strong sense of anti-German feelings among the American people.
The German Empire returned to unrestricted submarine warfare
Unrestricted submarine warfare
Unrestricted submarine warfare is a type of naval warfare in which submarines sink merchantmen without warning, as opposed to attacks per prize rules...
in January 1917 in the belief that the United Kingdom would be decisively weakened before the United States could mobilize for war. Nevertheless, the United States declared war on the German Empire, joined the Allies, and sent 1.982 million American servicemen under the command of General John J. Pershing to France out of a total of 4.355 million available. Though initially slow at mobilization of the American Expeditionary Force
American Expeditionary Force
The American Expeditionary Forces or AEF were the United States Armed Forces sent to Europe in World War I. During the United States campaigns in World War I the AEF fought in France alongside British and French allied forces in the last year of the war, against Imperial German forces...
to the Western front, American doughboys were instrumental in providing heightened morale for the Allies as well as hastening a victorious end to the war in Europe. British and American forces in fact, fought together and side by side at numerous engagements on the Western Front
Western Front (World War I)
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
such as the Third Battle of the Aisne
Third Battle of the Aisne
The Third Battle of the Aisne was a battle of the German Spring Offensive during World War I that focused on capturing the Chemin des Dames Ridge before the American Expeditionary Force could arrive completely in France. It was one of a series of desperate offensives, known as the Kaiserschlacht,...
from May to June 1918, the Battle of Belleau Wood
Battle of Belleau Wood
The Battle of Belleau Wood occurred during the German 1918 Spring Offensive in World War I, near the Marne River in France. The battle was fought between the U.S...
in June 1918, the Second Battle of the Marne
Second Battle of the Marne
The Second Battle of the Marne , or Battle of Reims was the last major German Spring Offensive on the Western Front during the First World War. The German attack failed when an Allied counterattack led by France overwhelmed the Germans, inflicting severe casualties...
from July to August 1918, the Battle of Amiens in August 1918, the Battle of St. Quentin Canal and the Fifth Battle of Ypres
Fifth Battle of Ypres
The Fifth Battle of Ypres is the unofficial name used to identify a series of battles in northern France and southern Belgium from late September through October 1918....
both from September to October 1918, and the Battle of Courtrai
Battle of Courtrai (1918)
The Battle of Courtrai was one of a series of offensives in northern France and southern Belgium that took place in late September and October 1918.- Background :...
in October 1918, all leading to Armistice Day
Armistice Day
Armistice Day is on 11 November and commemorates the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, France, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front of World War I, which took effect at eleven o'clock in the morning—the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day...
on November 11, 1918.
Although Woodrow Wilson had wanted to wage war for the sake of humanity, the negotiations over the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
underlined in his Fourteen Points for Peace
Fourteen Points
The Fourteen Points was a speech given by United States President Woodrow Wilson to a joint session of Congress on January 8, 1918. The address was intended to assure the country that the Great War was being fought for a moral cause and for postwar peace in Europe...
made it plainly clear that his diplomatic position had weakened with victory. The borders of Europe were redrawn on the basis of national self-determination, with the exception of Germany under the newly formed Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
. Financial reparations were imposed on the Germans, despite British reservations and American protests, largely because of France's desire for punitive peace.
Inter-war years
World War I was theoretically the end of the Royal Navy's superiority, an eclipse acknowledged in the Washington Naval TreatyWashington Naval Treaty
The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, was an attempt to cap and limit, and "prevent 'further' costly escalation" of the naval arms race that had begun after World War I between various International powers, each of which had significant naval fleets. The treaty was...
, when the United States and the United Kingdom agreed to the allocation of equal tonnage quotas on February 6, 1922. Although the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
had the right to build a navy equal in size and power of the British Royal Navy, it voluntarily opted to remain the junior of the two navies, with a smaller, albeit growing, fleet of vessels. Nevertheless, the United States' policies on immigration and trade ignited a Pacific Fleet
United States Pacific Fleet
The United States Pacific Fleet is a Pacific Ocean theater-level component command of the United States Navy that provides naval resources under the operational control of the United States Pacific Command. Its home port is at Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawaii. It is commanded by Admiral Patrick M...
rivalry with the Empire of Japan
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
rather than an Atlantic Fleet
United States Fleet Forces Command
The United States Fleet Forces Command is an Atlantic Ocean theater-level component command of the United States Navy that provides naval resources that are under the operational control of the United States Northern Command...
rivalry with the British Empire.
In the 1920s, relations between the two countries took on many different forms, especially given American refusal to join the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
. While the United States participated in functional bodies of the League —to the satisfaction of Britain— it was a delicate issue linking the US to the League in public. Thus, some conferences, like the Washington Conference mentioned above, occurred outside League auspices. The US would often be unable to send official delegates to League committees, instead sending unofficial "observers," considering the strained political debate in the country between Isolationism and Internationalism.
During the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, the United States was preoccupied with its own internal affairs and economic recovery, espousing an isolationist
Isolationism
Isolationism is the policy or doctrine of isolating one's country from the affairs of other nations by declining to enter into alliances, foreign economic commitments, international agreements, etc., seeking to devote the entire efforts of one's country to its own advancement and remain at peace by...
policy. As a result, the US was only sporadically active in foreign affairs throughout the 1930s. After the United States imposed a high tariff on foreign imports in 1930 called the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, the United Kingdom and the rest of the British Empire unsuccessfully built up imperial trade preferences, thereby attempting to promote trade internally and divert trade away from the United States. Nevertheless, the Great Depression did eventually spread to the United Kingdom, so much that the UK Treasury found it nearly impossible to repay loans and war bonds granted by banks in the United States during World War I. In the end, most of the World War I debt which had been accrued by the United Kingdom as well as many other European countries were largely written off and excused by American bankers.
Towards the end of 1936, the Abdication Crisis, while absorbing popular interest in both the United Kingdom and the United States, did not become a foreign relations issue. At the insistence of Stanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, KG, PC was a British Conservative politician, who dominated the government in his country between the two world wars...
, the ultimatum was given to King Edward VIII of retaining his throne as head of the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
, or renouncing his birth right as King and marrying an American divorcee named Wallis Simpson.
Tensions over the Irish question
Irish question
The Irish Question was a phrase used mainly by members of the British ruling classes from the early 19th century until the 1920s. It was used to describe Irish nationalism and the calls for Irish independence....
diminished with the independence of the Irish Free State
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand...
, which was granted much earlier in 1922, and with the ambassadorship of Joseph P. Kennedy to the Court of St. James's
Court of St. James's
The Court of St James's is the royal court of the United Kingdom. It previously had the same function in the Kingdom of England and in the Kingdom of Great Britain .-Overview:...
beginning in 1938.
World War II
Though much of the American people were sympathetic to the United Kingdom and France during their dangerous confrontation with Nazi GermanyNazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, there was widespread opposition to possible American intervention in European affairs. This was highlighted in a series of Neutrality Acts which were ratified by the United States Congress in 1935, 1936, and 1937 respectively. However, Franklin Roosevelt's policy of cash-and-carry still allowed the United Kingdom and France to order munitions from the United States.
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, whose mother was an American, became prime minister after the Allies' failure to prevent the German invasion of Norway. After the fall of France, Franklin Roosevelt gave the United Kingdom and later the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
all aid short of war. The Destroyers for Bases Agreement
Destroyers for Bases Agreement
The Destroyers for Bases Agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom, September 2, 1940, transferred fifty mothballed destroyers from the United States Navy in exchange for land rights on British possessions...
which was signed in September 1940, gave the United States a ninety-nine-year rent-free lease of numerous land and air bases throughout the British Empire in exchange for the United Kingdom receiving possession of fifty destroyers from the United States Navy. Beginning in March 1941, the United States enacted Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease was the program under which the United States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, Free France, and other Allied nations with materiel between 1941 and 1945. It was signed into law on March 11, 1941, a year and a half after the outbreak of war in Europe in...
in the form of Sherman tanks, fighter airplanes, munitions, bullets, food, and medical supplies which were sent to the United Kingdom, $31.4 billion out of a total of $50.1 billion ($700 billion in 2007) sent to the Allies.
Before the attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
and the declaration of war by the United States Congress on Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and the Empire of Japan
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
in December 1941, two United States Navy destroyers had already been torpedoed on convoy duties in the North Atlantic Ocean. The United States nevertheless became extensively involved in the European theatre
European Theatre of World War II
The European Theatre of World War II was a huge area of heavy fighting across Europe from Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939 until the end of the war with the German unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945...
due to the real and perceived threat of the Axis Powers
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
eventually reaching American shores, contingent on the Allies in Fortress Europe
Fortress Europe
Fortress Europe was a military propaganda term from the Second World War which referred to the areas of Continental Europe occupied by Nazi Germany, as opposed to the free United Kingdom across the Channel...
and to another extent, the Allies in the Pacific War
Pacific War
The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...
, being defeated. 73,000 British and 60,000 Americans stormed the beaches of Normandy
D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
on June 6, 1944, and both nations' armed forces fought alongside each other at the invasion of Sicily from July to August 1943, the Battle of Monte Cassino
Battle of Monte Cassino
The Battle of Monte Cassino was a costly series of four battles during World War II, fought by the Allies against Germans and Italians with the intention of breaking through the Winter Line and seizing Rome.In the beginning of 1944, the western half of the Winter Line was being anchored by Germans...
from January to May 1944, Operation Market Garden
Operation Market Garden
Operation Market Garden was an unsuccessful Allied military operation, fought in the Netherlands and Germany in the Second World War. It was the largest airborne operation up to that time....
in September 1944, the Battle of Overloon
Battle of Overloon
The Battle of Overloon was a Second World War battle between Allied forces and the German army which took place in and around the village of Overloon in the south-east of the Netherlands between 30 September and 18 October 1944. The battle, which resulted in an Allied victory, ensued after the...
from September to October 1944, the Battle of the Bulge
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was a major German offensive , launched toward the end of World War II through the densely forested Ardennes mountain region of Wallonia in Belgium, hence its French name , and France and...
from December 1944 to January 1945, and many other numerous battles in the China Burma India Theater of World War II
China Burma India Theater of World War II
China Burma India Theater was the name used by the United States Army for its forces operating in conjunction with British and Chinese Allied air and land forces in China, Burma, and India during World War II...
as well as the Pacific War. It was during this period of extremely close cooperation that the "Special Relationship" was created and conceptualized.
Millions of American servicemen were based in the United Kingdom during World War II, which led to a certain amount of friction with their British counterparts. This animosity was explored in art and film, most particularly A Matter of Life and Death and A Canterbury Tale.
As part of their military collaboration throughout the war, scientists and physicists from the United States, the United Kingdom, and many other countries, all under the control of the United States Army Corps of Engineers
United States Army Corps of Engineers
The United States Army Corps of Engineers is a federal agency and a major Army command made up of some 38,000 civilian and military personnel, making it the world's largest public engineering, design and construction management agency...
and the administration of General Leslie Groves
Leslie Groves
Lieutenant General Leslie Richard Groves, Jr. was a United States Army Corps of Engineers officer who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and directed the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb during World War II. As the son of a United States Army chaplain, Groves lived at a...
, worked in total secrecy on the Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
, which eventually achieved the objective of building an atomic bomb before Nazi Germany could obtain and use such a weapon. Scientific research during the Manhattan Project was directed and headed by an American theoretical physicist named Robert Oppenheimer
Robert Oppenheimer
Julius Robert Oppenheimer was an American theoretical physicist and professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. Along with Enrico Fermi, he is often called the "father of the atomic bomb" for his role in the Manhattan Project, the World War II project that developed the first...
.
The United States and Britain during World War II met during three conferences at Tehran
Tehran Conference
The Tehran Conference was the meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill between November 28 and December 1, 1943, most of which was held at the Soviet Embassy in Tehran, Iran. It was the first World War II conference amongst the Big Three in which Stalin was present...
in November 1943 and Yalta
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, held February 4–11, 1945, was the wartime meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, represented by President Franklin D...
in February 1945. The relationship between Churchill and Roosevelt was close after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 7, 1941 which the United States send troops to help Britain.
Also at the end of World War II Churchill had sent British Pacific Fleet to help the United States during the Battle of Okinawa
Battle of Okinawa
The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945...
in 1945 to neutralize the Japanese air power. During the Potsdam Conference
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm Hohenzollern, in Potsdam, occupied Germany, from 16 July to 2 August 1945. Participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States...
in July 1945 President Truman received a secret of testing of atomic bombs and then he told Churchill about the secret.
Cold War
In the years following World War II, the United Kingdom found itself in virtual financial ruin whereas the United States was in the midst of an economic boom. Due to many hardships during and after the toll of war, the British EmpireBritish Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
went into relative decline as several of its overseas colonies began the process of de-colonization, most notably, the independence of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
which occurred in 1947.
Furthermore, the United Kingdom found itself at the mercy of American economic policy when the United States abruptly terminated lend-lease at the end of World War II. This fact was highlighted by the Anglo-American loan
Anglo-American loan
The Anglo-American Loan Agreement was a post World War II loan made to the United Kingdom by the United States on 15 July 1946, and paid off 29 December 2006...
made to the United Kingdom by the United States in 1946. At a 2% interest rate, the terms of this loan were $586 million (£145 million in 1945) and a $375 million line of credit which was to be paid off in 50 annual installments, the first payment being due in 1950. The United Kingdom deferred twice on repayment with the last payment of $83 million (£45.5 million) being sent to the United States Federal Reserve on December 31, 2006.
The United States and the United Kingdom became founding members of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
in 1945, as well as becoming two of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council
United Nations Security Council
The United Nations Security Council is one of the principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of...
. In the post-war era, the United States and the United Kingdom were becoming increasingly suspicious of the motives of their former ally, the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. Rising tensions between the capitalist and communist powers led to the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
. Thus, close cooperation between the United States and the United Kingdom resulted in the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization with their European allies, a mutual defense alliance whereby if one country is attacked, then it is seen as an attack on all countries.
On February 11, 1946, negotiators from the United Kingdom and the United States signed the Bermuda I Agreement
Bermuda Agreement
The Bermuda Agreement, reached in 1946 by American and British negotiators in Bermuda, was an early bilateral air transport agreement regulating civil air transport...
, a bilateral air transport agreement
Bilateral Air Transport Agreement
A bilateral air transport agreement is an agreement which two nations sign to allow international commercial air transport services between their territories....
which regulated commercial air transport between British and American airports.
The United States began practicing an anti-colonial and anti-communist stance in its foreign policy throughout the Cold War. Military forces from the United States and the United Kingdom were heavily involved in the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, fighting under a United Nations mandate. A withdrawal of military forces occurred when a stalemate was implemented in 1953. When the Suez Crisis
Suez Crisis
The Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, Suez War was an offensive war fought by France, the United Kingdom, and Israel against Egypt beginning on 29 October 1956. Less than a day after Israel invaded Egypt, Britain and France issued a joint ultimatum to Egypt and Israel,...
erupted in October 1956, the United States feared a wider war after the Soviet Union and the other Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe...
nations threatened to intervene on the Egyptian side. Thus, the United States demanded that the United Kingdom and France end their invasion of Egypt or otherwise face imminent economic sanctions which would in all probable causes, create an economic collapse in the United Kingdom and a severe devaluation of the sterling pound. This threat made by Dwight Eisenhower led to an immediate British and French withdrawal of their military occupation as well as the immediate resignation of Anthony Eden
Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957...
in 1957.
Dwight D. Eisenhower's taking over the White House in January 1953 might have been expected to guarantee a continuance of good United States-United Kingdom relations, if not indeed a period of even closer collaboration. The record of Anglo-American cooperation during Eisenhower's presidency was trouble and checkered, approaching in 1956 a complete breakdown that represented the lowest point in the relation of the two countries since 1920s. During the years of 1953–1961 the British and US relation between Dwight D. Eisenhower and Winston Churchill restored wartime partnership. Winston Churchill became Prime Minister again in 1951, he restored the greatest partnership to his old post. But when Anthony Eden took over from Churchill in 1955 had first hand with experience of Anglo-American collaboration.
Through the US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement
1958 US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement
The 1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement is a bilateral treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom on nuclear weapons cooperation.It was signed after the UK successfully tested its first hydrogen bomb during Operation Grapple. While the U.S...
signed in 1958, the United States assisted the United Kingdom in their own development of a nuclear arsenal
Nuclear weapons and the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom was the third country to test an independently developed nuclear weapon, in October 1952. It is one of the five "Nuclear Weapons States" under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which the UK ratified in 1968...
. In April 1963, John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
and Harold Macmillan
Harold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....
signed the Polaris Sales Agreement
Polaris Sales Agreement
The Polaris Sales Agreement was an agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom which formally arranged for the Polaris missile system to be provided to the UK to maintain its independent nuclear deterrent. The arrangement had been set up in principle as a result of the Nassau Agreement...
to the effect of the United States agreeing to supply the UGM-27 Polaris
UGM-27 Polaris
The Polaris missile was a two-stage solid-fuel nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missile built during the Cold War by Lockheed Corporation of California for the United States Navy....
ballistic missile to the United Kingdom and for use in the Royal Navy's submarine fleet starting in 1968.
The United States gradually became involved in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
in the early 1960s, but received no support this time from the United Kingdom. Anti-Americanism
Anti-Americanism
The term Anti-Americanism, or Anti-American Sentiment, refers to broad opposition or hostility to the people, policies, culture or government of the United States...
due to the Vietnam War and a lack of American support for France and the United Kingdom over the Suez Crisis weighed heavily on the minds of many in Europe. This sentiment extended in the United Kingdom by Harold Wilson's
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...
refusal to send British troops to Indochina.
On July 23, 1977, officials from the United Kingdom and the United States renegotiated the previous Bermuda I Agreement, thus signing the Bermuda II Agreement
Bermuda II
Bermuda II was a bilateral air transport agreement between the governments of the United Kingdom and the United States signed on 23 July 1977 as a renegotiation of the original 1946 Bermuda air services agreement...
to the effect of only four combined airlines, two from the United Kingdom and two from the United States, being allowed to operate flights from London Heathrow Airport
London Heathrow Airport
London Heathrow Airport or Heathrow , in the London Borough of Hillingdon, is the busiest airport in the United Kingdom and the third busiest airport in the world in terms of total passenger traffic, handling more international passengers than any other airport around the globe...
and specified "gateway cities" in the United States. The Bermuda II Agreement was in effect for nearly 30 years until it was eventually replaced by the EU-US Open Skies Agreement
EU-US Open Skies Agreement
The EU–US Open Skies Agreement is an air transport agreement between the European Union and the United States. The agreement allows any airline of the European Union and any airline of the United States to fly between any point in the European Union and any point in the United States. Airlines of...
, which was signed on April 30, 2007 and entering into effect on March 30, 2008.
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
was strongly supportive of Ronald Reagan's
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
unwavering stance towards the Soviet Union. Often described as 'political soulmates' and a high point in the "Special Relationship
Special relationship
The Special Relationship is a phrase used to describe the exceptionally close political, diplomatic, cultural, economic, military and historical relations between the United Kingdom and the United States, following its use in a 1946 speech by British statesman Winston Churchill...
," both President Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher met on numerous occasions throughout their political careers, speaking in concert when confronting Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
.
In 1982, the British Government made a request to the United States, which the Americans agreed upon in principle, to sell the Trident II D5 ballistic missile
UGM-133 Trident II
UGM-133 Trident II, or Trident D5 is a submarine-launched ballistic missile, built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Sunnyvale, California, and deployed with the US Navy and Royal Navy. It was first deployed in 1990, and is still in service....
, associated equipment, and related system support for use on four Vanguard class nuclear submarines in the Royal Navy. The Trident II D5 ballistic missile replaced the United Kingdom's previous use of the UGM-27 Polaris ballistic missile, beginning in the mid-1990s.
In the Falklands War
Falklands War
The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
, the United States initially tried to mediate between the United Kingdom and Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
in 1982, but ultimately ended up supporting the United Kingdom's counter-invasion. The United States Defense Department under Caspar Weinberger
Caspar Weinberger
Caspar Willard "Cap" Weinberger , was an American politician, vice president and general counsel of Bechtel Corporation, and Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan from January 21, 1981, until November 23, 1987, making him the third longest-serving defense secretary to date, after...
, supplied the British military with equipment as well as logistical support.
In October 1983, the United States and a coalition of Caribbean nations undertook Operation Urgent Fury, codename for the invasion of the Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
island nation of Grenada
Grenada
Grenada is an island country and Commonwealth Realm consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea...
. A bloody Marxist-coup had overrun Grenada and neighboring countries in the region asked the United States to intervene militarily, which it did successfully despite having made assurances to a deeply resentful British Government.
On April 15, 1986, the United States Air Force with elements of naval and marine forces launched Operation El Dorado Canyon
Operation El Dorado Canyon
The 1986 United States bombing of Libya, code-named Operation El Dorado Canyon, comprised the joint United States Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps air-strikes against Libya on April 15, 1986. The attack was carried out in response to the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing.-Origins:Shortly after his...
from RAF Fairford
RAF Fairford
RAF Fairford is a Royal Air Force station in Gloucestershire, England. It is a standby airfield, not in everyday use. Its most prominent use in recent years has been as an airfield for United States Air Force B-52s during the 2003 Iraq War, Operation Allied Force in 1999, and the first Gulf War in...
, RAF Upper Heyford
RAF Upper Heyford
RAF Upper Heyford was a Royal Air Force station located north-west of Bicester near the village of Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire, England. The base was brought into use for flying in July 1918 by the Royal Flying Corps. During World War II it was used by many units of the RAF, mainly as a training...
, RAF Lakenheath
RAF Lakenheath
RAF Lakenheath, is a Royal Air Force military airbase near Lakenheath in Suffolk, England. Although an RAF station, it hosts United States Air Force units and personnel...
, and RAF Mildenhall
RAF Mildenhall
RAF Mildenhall is a Royal Air Force station located at Mildenhall in Suffolk, England. Despite its status as an RAF station, it primarily supports United States Air Force operations and is currently the home of the 100th Air Refueling Wing...
. Despite firm opposition from within the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
, Margaret Thatcher nevertheless gave Ronald Reagan permission to use Royal Air Force stations in the United Kingdom during the bombings of Tripoli
Tripoli
Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...
and Benghazi
Benghazi
Benghazi is the second largest city in Libya, the main city of the Cyrenaica region , and the former provisional capital of the National Transitional Council. The wider metropolitan area is also a district of Libya...
in Libya, a counter-attack by the United States in response to Muammar Gaddafi's
Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
exportation of state-sponsored terrorism directed towards civilians and American servicemen stationed in West Berlin
West Berlin
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...
.
On December 21, 1988, Pan American Worldways' Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways' third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport...
from London Heathrow Airport
London Heathrow Airport
London Heathrow Airport or Heathrow , in the London Borough of Hillingdon, is the busiest airport in the United Kingdom and the third busiest airport in the world in terms of total passenger traffic, handling more international passengers than any other airport around the globe...
to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport is an international airport located in the borough of Queens in New York City, about southeast of Lower Manhattan. It is the busiest international air passenger gateway to the United States, handling more international traffic than any other airport in North...
exploded over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 169 Americans and 40 Britons onboard. The motive that is generally attributed to the country of Libya can be traced back to a series of military confrontations with the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
that took place in the 1980s in the Gulf of Sidra
Gulf of Sidra
Gulf of Sidra is a body of water in the Mediterranean Sea on the northern coast of Libya; it is also known as Gulf of Sirte or the Great Sirte or Greater Syrtis .- Geography :The Gulf of Sidra has been a major centre for tuna fishing in the Mediterranean for centuries...
, the whole of which Libya claimed as its territorial waters. Despite a guilty verdict announced on January 31, 2001 by the Scottish High Court of Justiciary
High Court of Justiciary
The High Court of Justiciary is the supreme criminal court of Scotland.The High Court is both a court of first instance and a court of appeal. As a court of first instance, the High Court sits mainly in Parliament House, or in the former Sheriff Court building, in Edinburgh, but also sits from time...
which ruled against Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the alleged bomber on charges of murder and the conspiracy to commit murder, Libya had never formally admitted carrying out the 1988 bombing over Scotland until 2003.
During the Soviet war in Afghanistan
Soviet war in Afghanistan
The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a nine-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist-Leninist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan against the Afghan Mujahideen and foreign "Arab–Afghan" volunteers...
, the United States and the United Kingdom throughout the 1980s provided arms to the Mujahadeen rebels in Afghanistan until the last troops from the Soviet Union left Afghanistan on February 15, 1989.
Post Cold War
When the United States became the world's lone superpowerSuperpower
A superpower is a state with a dominant position in the international system which has the ability to influence events and its own interests and project power on a worldwide scale to protect those interests...
after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, new threats emerged which confronted the United States and its NATO allies. With military build-up beginning in August 1990 and the use of force beginning in January 1991, the United States, followed by the United Kingdom, provided the two largest forces respectively for the coalition army which liberated Kuwait from Saddam Hussein's regime during the Persian Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
.
In 1997, the British Labour Party was elected to office for the first time in eighteen years. The new prime minister, Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
, and Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
both used the expression 'Third Way'
Third way (centrism)
The Third Way refers to various political positions which try to reconcile right-wing and left-wing politics by advocating a varying synthesis of right-wing economic and left-wing social policies. Third Way approaches are commonly viewed from within the first- and second-way perspectives as...
to describe their centre-left ideologies. In August 1997, the American people expressed solidarity with the British people, sharing in their grief and sense of shock on the death of Diana, Princess of Wales
Death of Diana, Princess of Wales
On 31 August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, died as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris, France. Her companion, Dodi Fayed, and the driver of the Mercedes-Benz W140, Henri Paul, were pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. Fayed's...
, who perished in a car crash in Paris, France. Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
attended the funeral at Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
on September 6, 1997.
Throughout 1998 and 1999, the United States and the United Kingdom sent troops to impose peace during the Kosovo War
Kosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
.
War on Terrorism and Iraq War
2,669 Americans and 67 Britons at the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
, The Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania
Shanksville, Pennsylvania
Shanksville is a borough in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, United States, with a population of 245, as of the 2000 census. It is part of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area and is approximately 60 miles southeast from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
were victims of a terrorist plot orchestrated by the terrorist group known as al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
on September 11, 2001. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
, there was an enormous outpouring of sympathy from the United Kingdom for the American people, and Tony Blair was one of George W. Bush's
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
strongest international supporters for bringing al-Qaeda and the Taliban to justice. With permission from Queen Elizabeth II, the Star Spangled Banner was played in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...
during Guard Mounting
Guard Mounting
Guard Mounting, or Changing the Guard , refers to a formal ceremony in which sentries providing ceremonial guard duties at important institutions are relieved by a new batch of sentries...
on September 12, 2001 in the presence of Prince Andrew, Duke of York
Prince Andrew, Duke of York
Prince Andrew, Duke of York KG GCVO , is the second son, and third child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
and then United States Ambassador to the Court of St. James's
Court of St. James's
The Court of St James's is the royal court of the United Kingdom. It previously had the same function in the Kingdom of England and in the Kingdom of Great Britain .-Overview:...
, William Farish
William Farish
William Farish may refer to:* William Farish , tutor at the University of Cambridge* William Stamps Farish I * William Stamps Farish II , Standard Oil president...
.
The United States declared a War on Terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
following the attacks. British forces participated in the United States-led war in Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...
and unlike France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, the United Kingdom, as well as the Commonwealth
Commonwealth
Commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has sometimes been synonymous with "republic."More recently it has been used for fraternal associations of some sovereign nations...
nation of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, supported the United States-led invasion of Iraq
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
in 2003. The United States, followed closely by the United Kingdom, contributed the most troops to the coalition during the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the ensuing Iraq War which followed.
The July 7, 2005 London bombings
7 July 2005 London bombings
The 7 July 2005 London bombings were a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks in the United Kingdom, targeting civilians using London's public transport system during the morning rush hour....
emphasized the difference in the nature of the terrorist threat to both nations. The United States concentrated primarily on global enemies, like the al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
network and other Islamic extremists from the Middle East. The London bombings were carried out by homegrown extremist Muslims, and it emphasized the United Kingdom's threat from the radicalization of its own people.
By 2007, support amongst the British public for the Iraq war had plummeted. Despite Tony Blair's historically low approval ratings with the British people, mainly due to allegations of faulty government intelligence of Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
possessing weapons of mass destruction
Weapons of mass destruction
A weapon of mass destruction is a weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to a large number of humans and/or cause great damage to man-made structures , natural structures , or the biosphere in general...
, his unapologetic and unwavering stance for the United Kingdom's alliance with the United States can be summed up in his own words. He said, "We should remain the closest ally of the US... not because they are powerful, but because we share their values." The alliance between George W. Bush and Tony Blair seriously damaged the prime minister's standing in the eyes of many British citizens
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
. Tony Blair argued it is in the United Kingdom's interest to "protect and strengthen the bond" with the United States regardless of who is in the White House. However, a perception of one-sided compromising personal and political closeness led to serious discussion of the term "Poodle-ism" in the British media, to describe the "Special Relationship
Special relationship
The Special Relationship is a phrase used to describe the exceptionally close political, diplomatic, cultural, economic, military and historical relations between the United Kingdom and the United States, following its use in a 1946 speech by British statesman Winston Churchill...
" of the British Government and Prime Minister with the White House and President.
On March 31, 2009, Major General Andy Salmon of the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
formally handed over command of combat operations in Basra, Iraq to Major General Michael Oates of the 10th Mountain Division
10th Mountain Division
The 10th Mountain Division is a light infantry division of the United States Army based at Fort Drum, New York. It is a subordinate unit of the XVIII Airborne Corps and the only division-sized element of the U.S. Army to specialize in fighting under harsh terrain and weather conditions...
of the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
. This transition marked the beginning of the end of British occupation in southern Iraq. All British servicemen were withdrawn with the exception of 400 who remained in Iraq until July 31, 2009.
On June 11, 2009, the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
accepted four Chinese Uighurs from the United States' detainment facility known as Guantanamo Bay detention camp located on the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base is located on of land and water at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba which the United States leased for use as a coaling station following the Cuban-American Treaty of 1903. The base is located on the shore of Guantánamo Bay at the southeastern end of Cuba. It is the oldest overseas...
in Cuba. At the request of the United States Government, Bermudan officials agreed to host Khaleel Mamut, Hozaifa Parhat
Hozaifa Parhat
-Transcript:Parhat chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.On March 3, 2006, in response to a court order from Judge Jed Rakoff, the Department of Defense published a ten page summarized transcript from his Combatant Status Review Tribunal....
, Salahidin Abdulahat, and Abdullah Abdulqadirakhun as guest workers in Bermuda who seven years ago, were all captured by Pakistani bounty hunters during the United States-led invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001. This decision agreed upon by American and Bermudan officials drew considerable consternation and contempt by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
as it was viewed by British officials in London that they should have been consulted on whether or not the decision to take in four Chinese Uighurs was a security and foreign issue of which the Bermudian government does not have delegated responsibility over.
Release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Boycott of Scotland
On August 20, 2009, Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskillKenny MacAskill
Kenneth "Kenny" Wright MacAskill is the Scottish Government's Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Scottish National Party Member of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh Eastern, formerly Edinburgh East and Musselburgh since 2007...
publicly announced during a media conference that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only person convicted of the terrorist plot which killed 169 Americans and 40 Britons on Pan American Worldways' Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways' third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport...
over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland on December 21, 1988, was to be released from a Scottish jail on compassionate grounds based on medical advice verifying that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi has terminal cancer and an estimated three months left to live. After media reports showed Abdelbaset al-Megrahi at Tripoli International Airport
Tripoli International Airport
The Tripoli International Airport is an international airport that serves Tripoli, Libya. It is operated by the Civil Aviation and Meteorology Bureau of Libya and is the nation's largest airport...
receiving a hero's welcome on Libyan soil, fury and mounting anger grew in the United States over the decision itself to release Abdelbaset al-Megrahi under the framework of Scottish law for a crime he was found guilty of committing on January 31, 2001 by the Scottish High Court of Justiciary
High Court of Justiciary
The High Court of Justiciary is the supreme criminal court of Scotland.The High Court is both a court of first instance and a court of appeal. As a court of first instance, the High Court sits mainly in Parliament House, or in the former Sheriff Court building, in Edinburgh, but also sits from time...
and one in which his sentence carried out was being revoked. The judges recommended a minimum of 20 years "in view of the horrendous nature of this crime." From the American viewpoint, the decision to release Abdelbaset al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds was seen as uncompassionate and insensitive to the memory of the victims of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
said that the decision made her "deeply disappointed." President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
said that the decision was "highly objectionable" while FBI Director Robert Mueller
Robert Mueller
Robert Swan Mueller III is the 6th and current Director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation .-Early life:...
had even more strong words in an open letter written to Kenny MacAskill in which he said the decision to release Abdelbaset al-Megrahi "makes a mockery of the rule of law."
Prime Minister Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
and several officials of the British Government declined to say whether or not they supported the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi as they repeatedly stressed that the decision was a devolved matter and under the sole authority of the Scottish Government. Nevertheless, serious questions arose as to whether or not a lucrative trade agreement or oil deal was made between Libya and the United Kingdom, contingent upon the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, as claimed by Saif Gaddafi, the son of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
. After the release, Colonel Gaddafi stated, "And I say to my friend Brown, the prime minister of Britain , his government, the Queen of Britain, Elizabeth, and Prince Andrew, who all contributed to encouraging the Scottish government to take this historic and courageous decision, despite the obstacles." In response to all accusations made in the media, Lord Mandelson
Peter Mandelson
Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson, PC is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Hartlepool from 1992 to 2004, served in a number of Cabinet positions under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and was a European Commissioner...
, the United Kingdom's Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills made a rebuttal by saying, "It's not only completely wrong to make such a suggestion, it's also quite offensive."
Surrounding the controversy of releasing Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and the allegations of a trade deal between Libya and the United Kingdom, a backlash of angry protesters in the United States called for a boycott of Scotland. A web site in the form of an online petition was launched soon thereafter with a list of e-mail addresses of Scottish and British politicians, contact details of Scottish newspapers, and a list of Scottish products and companies for the American people to economically boycott. The online web petition claimed that a boycott of Scotland was the "only way to send a clear and direct message" of American contempt. Grassroots campaigns also took hold on social networking sites such as Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
and Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
, while there were calls to have Scotch whisky
Scotch whisky
Scotch whisky is whisky made in Scotland.Scotch whisky is divided into five distinct categories: Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Single Grain Scotch Whisky, Blended Malt Scotch Whisky , Blended Grain Scotch Whisky, and Blended Scotch Whisky.All Scotch whisky must be aged in oak barrels for at least three...
renamed as 'Freedom Liquor.'
In the aftermath of the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, several commentators suggested that British-American relations have been damaged due to the actions of the Scottish Government. Others in the media as well as in government circles have even questioned whether or not the "Special Relationship
Special relationship
The Special Relationship is a phrase used to describe the exceptionally close political, diplomatic, cultural, economic, military and historical relations between the United Kingdom and the United States, following its use in a 1946 speech by British statesman Winston Churchill...
" developed between the United Kingdom and the United States during World War II still exists. David Rivkin, a former official of the United States Department of Justice said, "This will damage US relations with Britain for years to come."
However, Louis Susman
Louis Susman
Louis B. Susman is an American lawyer, retired investment banker, and the current United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Nominated by President Barack Obama, he was confirmed by the Senate on July 10, 2009, and sworn in by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.Susman is a longtime and...
, the United States Ambassador to the Court of St. James's said that although the decision made by Scotland to release Abdelbaset al-Megrahi on the grounds of compassion was seen by the United States as extremely regrettable, relations with the United Kingdom would remain fully intact and strong. Despite these assurances made by the United States, sceptics such as Susan Stewart, a former diplomat of Scottish Affairs contended that Scotland's standing and negative image in the United States resulted in a setback of Scottish-American relations where only a 'diplomatic charm offensive' on the behalf of Scotland could repair the damage already done.
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
In April 2010, the explosion, sinking and resultant oil spill from the Deepwater HorizonDeepwater Horizon
Deepwater Horizon was an ultra-deepwater, dynamically positioned, semi-submersible offshore oil drilling rig owned by Transocean. Built in 2001 in South Korea by Hyundai Heavy Industries, the rig was commissioned by R&B Falcon, which later became part of Transocean, registered in Majuro, Marshall...
drilling rig led to diplomatic friction and populist Anti-British sentiment
Anti-British sentiment
Anti-British sentiment is prejudice, fear or hatred against the British Government, the culture or the people of the United Kingdom, or its Overseas territories.-Argentina:...
, even though the Rig was owned and operated by the American company Transocean
Transocean
Transocean Ltd. is one of the world's largest offshore drilling contractors. The company rents floating mobile drill rigs, along with the equipment and personnel for operations, to oil and gas companies at an average daily rate of US$282,700...
. Commentators referred to "British Petroleum" even though the company had been known as "BP" since 1998. UK politicians expressed concerns about Anti-British rhetoric in the USA. BP's CEO Tony Hayward
Tony Hayward
Anthony Bryan "Tony" Hayward is a British businessman, the former chief executive of oil and energy company BP. He replaced John Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley on 1 May 2007. His tenure ended on 1 October 2010 in large part due to the circumstances of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill...
was called "the most hated man in America". Conversely, the widespread public demonisation of BP and the effects on the company and its image, coupled with Obama's statements with regard to BP caused a degree of Anti-American sentiment in the UK. This was particularly evidenced by the comments of the Business Secretary Vince Cable, who said that "It's clear that some of the rhetoric in the US is extreme and unhelpful", for reasons of British pension funds, loss of revenues for the exchequer and the adverse effect such the rhetoric was having on the share price of one of the UK's largest companies.
The meeting between Barack Obama and David Cameron in July somewhat helped strained diplomatic relations, and President Obama stated that there lies a "truly special relations" between the two countries. The degree to which Anti-British or Anti-American hostilities continue to exist, remains to be seen.
Present status
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
paid tribute to the relationship in February 2009 by saying, "it stands the test of time".
On March 3, 2009, Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
made his first visit to the Obama White House. During his visit, he presented the president a gift in the form of a pen holder carved from HMS Gannet
HMS Gannet (1878)
HMS Gannet was a Royal Navy screw sloop launched on 31 August 1878. She became a training ship in the Thames in 1903, and was then lent as a training ship for boys in the Hamble from 1913...
, which served anti-slavery missions off the coast of Africa. Barack Obama’s
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
gift to the prime minister was a box of 25 DVDs with movies including Star Wars
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released as Star Wars, is a 1977 American epic space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films complete the original trilogy, while a prequel trilogy completes the...
and E.T.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a 1982 American science fiction film co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Melissa Mathison and starring Henry Thomas, Dee Wallace, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore, and Peter Coyote...
—all of which were Region 1 disks, unplayable on most machines sold outside the United States. The wife of the prime minister, Sarah Brown
Sarah Brown (spouse)
Sarah Brown is the wife of Gordon Brown, a former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. She is also the founding partner of Hobsbawm Macaulay Communications, a public relations company.-Early life:...
, gave the Obama daughters, Sasha and Malia, two dresses from British clothing retailer Topshop
Topshop
Topshop is a British clothes retailer with shops in over 20 countries and online operations in a number of its markets. Its sales come primarily from women's clothing and fashion accessories...
, and a few unpublished books that have not reached the United States. Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is the wife of the 44th and incumbent President of the United States, Barack Obama, and is the first African-American First Lady of the United States...
gave the prime minister's sons two Marine One
Marine One
Marine One is the call sign of any United States Marine Corps aircraft carrying the President of the United States. It usually denotes a helicopter operated by the HMX-1 "Nighthawks" squadron, either the large VH-3D Sea King or the newer, smaller VH-60N "WhiteHawk", both due to be replaced by the...
helicopter toys. During this visit to the United States, Gordon Brown made an address to a joint session of the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
, a privilege rarely accorded to foreign heads of government.
On June 13, 2009, Michelle Obama and her two children, Sasha Obama and Malia Obama, had a private audience with Queen Elizabeth II. During this visit, the Obama children were granted a rare and unprecedented three-hour tour of the State rooms at Buckingham Palace. The Queen and the First Lady are known to have discussed their mutual love of gardening, the countryside, and fashion. Michelle Obama did, however, cause controversy when she apparently touched the Queen, Mrs Obama apparently putting her hand on the Queen's back. The breach of royal protocol was not noticed by the Queen.
In March 2009, a Gallup poll was conducted by means of a telephone survey of 1,023 adults in the United States. Of those surveyed, 36% identified the United Kingdom as their country's "most valuable ally", followed by Canada, Japan, Israel, and Germany rounding out the top five. The poll also indicated that 89% of Americans view the United Kingdom favorably, second only to Canada with 90%. According to the Pew Research Center
Pew Research Center
The Pew Research Center is an American think tank organization based in Washington, D.C. that provides information on issues, attitudes and trends shaping the United States and the world. The Center and its projects receive funding from The Pew Charitable Trusts. In 1990, Donald S...
, a global survey conducted in July 2009 revealed that 70% of Britons who responded had a favorable view of the United States.
Former United Kingdom Secretary of State for Defence
Secretary of State for Defence
The Secretary of State for Defence, popularly known as the Defence Secretary, is the senior Government of the United Kingdom minister in charge of the Ministry of Defence, chairing the Defence Council. It is a Cabinet position...
Liam Fox
Liam Fox
Liam Fox MP is a British Conservative politician, Member of Parliament for North Somerset, and former Secretary of State for Defence....
criticized minor American defense adjustments and announced that British military spending will be cut by a level expected to be 10 to 20 percent.
Minor British public dissatisfaction was experienced during the United States-executed rescue attempt of British aid worker Linda Norgrove who had been taken hostage by members of the Taliban in the Kunar Province
Kunar Province
Kunar is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the northeastern part of the country. Its capital is Asadabad. It is one of the four "N2KL" provinces...
of Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
when it emerged she may have been accidentally killed by a grenade thrown by one of the U.S. special forces soldiers. Many members of the British public did not understand why the soldiers would have been using grenades in a hostage situation. Largely, however the British public united behind David Cameron's decision to mount a rescue attempt and agreed her death was as a result of the actions of the kidnappers, with only 24% deeming the U.S. forces to have been responsible. In addition to this on January 11th 2011 the Daily Mail released a story in which it is revealed that Barack Obama values the French more than the British as allies. On the same page it is made apparent that Obama snubbed meetings with former Prime Minister Gordon Brown. However the same page has comments from the American public who do not share the same view as President Obama.
In February 2011, The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, based on evidence from Wikileaks
Wikileaks
WikiLeaks is an international self-described not-for-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. Its website, launched in 2006 under The Sunshine Press organisation, claimed a database of more...
, reported that the United States had tendered sensitive information about the British Trident nuclear arsenal
UK Trident programme
The UK Trident programme is the United Kingdom's Trident missile-based nuclear weapons programme. Under the programme, the Royal Navy operates 58 nuclear-armed Trident II D-5 submarine-launched ballistic missiles and around 200 nuclear warheads on 4 Vanguard-class ballistic missile submarines from...
(whose missile delivery systems are manufactured and maintained in the United States) to the Russian Federation as part of a deal to encourage Russia to ratify the New START Treaty. Professor Malcolm Chalmers of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies speculated that serial numbers could undermine Britain's non-verification policy by providing Russia "with another data point to gauge the size of the British arsenal".
On May 25th 2011, during his official visit to the UK, President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
reaffirmed the relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States of America in an address to Parliament at Westminster Hall. Amongst other points, Obama stated: "I've come here today to reaffirm one of the oldest; one of the strongest alliances the World has ever known. It's long been said that the United States and The United Kingdom share a special relationship."
Trade and investment
The United States accounts for the United Kingdom's largest single export market, buying $57 billion worth of British goods in 2007. Total trade of imports and exports between the United Kingdom and the United States amounted to the sum of $107.2 billion in 2007.The United States and the United Kingdom share the world's largest foreign direct investment partnership. In 2005, American direct investment in the United Kingdom totaled $324 billion while British direct investment in the United States totaled $282 billion.
Tourism
More than 4.5 million Britons visit the United States every year, spending approximately $14 billion. Around 3 million Americans visit the United Kingdom every year, spending approximately $10 billion.Transportation
New York's John F. Kennedy International AirportJohn F. Kennedy International Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport is an international airport located in the borough of Queens in New York City, about southeast of Lower Manhattan. It is the busiest international air passenger gateway to the United States, handling more international traffic than any other airport in North...
is the most popular international destination for people flying out of London Heathrow Airport
London Heathrow Airport
London Heathrow Airport or Heathrow , in the London Borough of Hillingdon, is the busiest airport in the United Kingdom and the third busiest airport in the world in terms of total passenger traffic, handling more international passengers than any other airport around the globe...
. Approximately 2,802,870 people on multiple daily non-stop flights flew from Heathrow to JFK in 2008. Concorde
Concorde
Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde was a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner, a supersonic transport . It was a product of an Anglo-French government treaty, combining the manufacturing efforts of Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation...
, British Airway's flagship supersonic airliner, began trans-Atlantic service to Washington Dulles International Airport
Washington Dulles International Airport
Washington Dulles International Airport is a public airport in Dulles, Virginia, 26 miles west of downtown Washington, D.C. The airport serves the Baltimore-Washington-Northern Virginia metropolitan area centered on the District of Columbia. It is named after John Foster Dulles, Secretary of...
in the United States on May 24, 1976. After the United States Supreme Court ruled on October 17, 1977 to lift a lower court's ban on sonic boom
Sonic boom
A sonic boom is the sound associated with the shock waves created by an object traveling through the air faster than the speed of sound. Sonic booms generate enormous amounts of sound energy, sounding much like an explosion...
over the skies of New York City, the traditional trans-Atlantic route between London's Heathrow and New York's JFK in under 3½ hours, had its first operational flight between the two hubs on October 19, 1977 and the last being on October 23, 2003.
Cunard Line
Cunard Line
Cunard Line is a British-American owned shipping company based at Carnival House in Southampton, England and operated by Carnival UK. It has been a leading operator of passenger ships on the North Atlantic for over a century...
, a British shipping company which is owned jointly by a British-American-Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
nian parent company, Carnival Corporation, provides seasonal trans-Atlantic crossings aboard the RMS Queen Mary 2
RMS Queen Mary 2
RMS Queen Mary 2 is a transatlantic ocean liner. She was the first major ocean liner built since in 1969, the vessel she succeeded as flagship of the Cunard Line....
and the MS Queen Victoria
MS Queen Victoria
MS Queen Victoria is a cruise ship in the Cunard Line fleet, named after Queen Victoria.Queen Victoria is the running mate to Queen Mary 2, and the new Queen Elizabeth. Until November 2008, she also operated alongside Queen Elizabeth 2...
between Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
and New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Also, both the USA and the UK continue to use Imperial for road signs.
State and official visits
Reciprocal state and official visits have been carried out over the years by three Presidents of the United StatesPresident of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
as well as two British monarchs
Monarchy of the United Kingdom
The monarchy of the United Kingdom is the constitutional monarchy of the United Kingdom and its overseas territories. The present monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, has reigned since 6 February 1952. She and her immediate family undertake various official, ceremonial and representational duties...
. Throughout her lifetime, Queen Elizabeth II has met a total of eleven presidents (Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr, and Obama), with the notable exception of Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
and she also met former President Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...
(1929–33) in 1957.
| Dates | Monarch and Consort | Locations | Itinerary |
| June 7–11, 1939 | King George VI and Queen Elizabeth | Washington D.C., New York City, and Hyde Park (New York) | Paid a state visit to Washington D.C., stayed at the White House White House The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical... , laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns Tomb of the Unknowns The Tomb of the Unknowns is a monument dedicated to American service members who have died without their remains being identified. It is located in Arlington National Cemetery in the United States... in Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, is a military cemetery in the United States of America, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna Lee, a great... , visited George Washington's Virginian plantation Mount Vernon Mount Vernon The name Mount Vernon is a dedication to the English Vice-Admiral Edward Vernon. It was first applied to Mount Vernon, the Virginia estate of George Washington, the first President of the United States... , made an appearance at the 1939 World's Fair in New York City, and made a private visit to Franklin Roosevelt's upstate New York retreat, Springwood Estate. |
| October 17–20, 1957 | Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II. He is the United Kingdom's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning British monarch.... |
Jamestown and Williamsburg (Virginia), Washington D.C., and New York City | Paid a state visit to Washington D.C., attended the official ceremonies of the 350th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown, Virginia Jamestown, Virginia Jamestown was a settlement in the Colony of Virginia. Established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 14, 1607 , it was the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States, following several earlier failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke... , and made a brief stop-over in New York City before sailing to the United Kingdom. |
| July 6–9, 1976 | Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh | Philadelphia, Washington D.C., New York City, Charlottesville (Virginia), Newport and Providence (Rhode Island), and Boston | Paid a state visit to Washington D.C. and toured the United States East Coast in conjunction with the United States Bicentennial celebrations aboard HMY Britannia HMY Britannia Her Majesty's Yacht Britannia is the former Royal Yacht of the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. She was the 83rd such vessel since the restoration of King Charles II in 1660. She is the second Royal yacht to bear the name, the first being the famous racing cutter built for The Prince of Wales... . |
| February 26- March 7, 1983 | Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh | San Diego, Palm Springs, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Yosemite National Park (California), and Seattle (Washington) | Made an official visit to the United States, toured the United States West Coast aboard HMY Britannia, and made a private visit to Ronald Reagan's retreat in the Santa Ynez Mountains, Rancho del Cielo Rancho del Cielo Rancho del Cielo, or "Sky's or Heaven's Ranch," is a ranch located on the top of the Santa Ynez Mountain range northwest of Santa Barbara, California... . |
| May 14–17, 1991 | Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh | Washington D.C., Baltimore (Maryland), Miami and Tampa (Florida), Austin, San Antonio, and Houston (Texas), and Lexington (Kentucky) | Paid a state visit to Washington D.C., addressed a joint session of the United States Congress United States Congress The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.... , made a private visit to Kentucky, and toured the Southern United States Southern United States The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States... . |
| May 3–8, 2007 | Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh | Richmond, Jamestown, and Williamsburg (Virginia), Louisville (Kentucky), Greenbelt (Maryland), and Washington D.C. | Paid a state visit to Washington D.C., addressed the Virginia General Assembly Virginia General Assembly The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the oldest legislative body in the Western Hemisphere, established on July 30, 1619. The General Assembly is a bicameral body consisting of a lower house, the Virginia House of Delegates, with 100 members,... , attended the official ceremonies of the 400th anniversary of the establishment of Jamestown, toured NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center is a major NASA space research laboratory established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center. GSFC employs approximately 10,000 civil servants and contractors, and is located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, USA. GSFC,... , visited the National World War II Memorial National World War II Memorial The U.S. National World War II Memorial is a National Memorial dedicated to Americans who served in the armed forces and as civilians during World War II... on the National Mall National Mall The National Mall is an open-area national park in downtown Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. The National Mall is a unit of the National Park Service , and is administered by the National Mall and Memorial Parks unit... , and made a private visit to Kentucky to attend the 133rd Kentucky Derby Kentucky Derby The Kentucky Derby is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbred horses, held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is one and a quarter mile at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings carry... . |
| Dates | Administration | Locations | Itinerary |
| December 26–28, 1918 | Woodrow Wilson Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913... and Edith Wilson |
London, Carlisle, and Manchester | Made an official visit to the United Kingdom, stayed at Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality... , attended an official dinner, had an audience with King George V George V of the United Kingdom George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936.... and Queen Mary, and made a private visit called the 'pilgrimage of the heart' to the ancestral home of his British-born mother, Janet Woodrow. |
| June 7–9, 1982 | Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor.... and Nancy Reagan Nancy Reagan Nancy Davis Reagan is the widow of former United States President Ronald Reagan and was First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989.... |
London and Windsor | Made an official visit to the United Kingdom, stayed at Windsor Castle Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it... , attended a state banquet, and addressed the Parliament of the United Kingdom Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London... . |
| November 18–21, 2003 | George W. Bush George W. Bush George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000.... and Laura Bush Laura Bush Laura Lane Welch Bush is the wife of the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush. She was the First Lady of the United States from January 20, 2001, to January 20, 2009. She has held a love of books and reading since childhood and her life and education have reflected that interest... |
London and Sedgefield | Paid a state visit to the United Kingdom, stayed at Buckingham Palace, attended a state banquet, laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior The Unknown Warrior The British tomb of The Unknown Warrior holds an unidentified British soldier killed on a European battlefield during the First World War. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, London on 11 November 1920, simultaneously with a similar interrment of a French unknown soldier at the Arc de Triomphe in... in Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,... , and made a private visit to Tony Blair's Tony Blair Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007... constituency in the north of England. |
| May 24- , 2011 | Barack Obama Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in... and Michelle Obama Michelle Obama Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is the wife of the 44th and incumbent President of the United States, Barack Obama, and is the first African-American First Lady of the United States... |
London | Paid a state visit to the United Kingdom, stayed at Buckingham Palace, attended a state banquet, addressed Parliament, presented wedding gifts to Prince William and the Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge(donation of MacBook MacBook The MacBook was a brand of Macintosh notebook computers built by Apple Inc. First introduced in May 2006, it replaced the iBook and 12-inch PowerBook series of notebooks as a part of the Apple–Intel transition. Positioned as the low end of the MacBook family, the Apple MacBook was aimed at the... notebook computers to Peace Players International); met with Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip and Prime Minister David Cameron David Cameron David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament .... . |
Diplomacy
Of United States- LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
(Embassy) - EdinburghEdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
(Consulate General) - BelfastBelfastBelfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
(Consulate General) - Hamilton, BermudaHamilton, BermudaHamilton is the capital of the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda. It is the territory's financial centre and a major port and tourist destination.-Geography:...
(Consulate General)
Of United Kingdom
- Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
(Embassy) - Atlanta (Consulate-General)
- BostonBostonBoston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
(Consulate-General) - ChicagoChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
(Consulate-General) - Houston (Consulate-General)
- Los AngelesLos ÁngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
(Consulate-General) - Miami (Consulate-General)
- New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
(Consulate-General) - San Francisco (Consulate-General)
- Denver (Consulate)
- OrlandoOrlando, FloridaOrlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...
(Consulate)
Common memberships
- Bank for International SettlementsBank for International SettlementsThe Bank for International Settlements is an intergovernmental organization of central banks which "fosters international monetary and financial cooperation and serves as a bank for central banks." It is not accountable to any national government...
- British-American ProjectBritish-American ProjectThe British-American Project is a fellowship of some 600 leaders and opinion formers from a broad spectrum of occupations, backgrounds and political viewpoints, drawn in equal numbers from the United States and the United Kingdom...
- Food and Agriculture OrganizationFood and Agriculture OrganizationThe Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is a specialised agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and...
- Group of Eight
- Group of TenGroup of Ten (economic)The Group of Ten or G-10 refers to the group of countries that have agreed to participate in the General Arrangements to Borrow...
- Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank GovernorsG-20 major economiesThe Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors is a group of finance ministers and central bank governors from 20 major economies: 19 countries plus the European Union, which is represented by the President of the European Council and by the European Central Bank...
- International Atomic Energy AgencyInternational Atomic Energy AgencyThe International Atomic Energy Agency is an international organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. The IAEA was established as an autonomous organization on 29 July 1957...
- International Chamber of CommerceInternational Chamber of CommerceThe International Chamber of Commerce is the largest, most representative business organization in the world. Its hundreds of thousands of member companies in over 130 countries have interests spanning every sector of private enterprise....
- International Court of JusticeInternational Court of JusticeThe International Court of Justice is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands...
- International Electrotechnical CommissionInternational Electrotechnical CommissionThe International Electrotechnical Commission is a non-profit, non-governmental international standards organization that prepares and publishes International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies – collectively known as "electrotechnology"...
- International Energy AgencyInternational Energy AgencyThe International Energy Agency is a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organization established in the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 1974 in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis...
- International Monetary FundInternational Monetary FundThe International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...
- International Olympic CommitteeInternational Olympic CommitteeThe International Olympic Committee is an international corporation based in Lausanne, Switzerland, created by Pierre de Coubertin on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president...
- International Renewable Energy AgencyInternational Renewable Energy AgencyThe International Renewable Energy Agency was founded in 2009 to promote widespread and increased adoption and sustainable use of all forms of renewable energy. IRENA facilitates access to all relevant renewable energy information, including technical data...
- International Telecommunication UnionInternational Telecommunication UnionThe International Telecommunication Union is the specialized agency of the United Nations which is responsible for information and communication technologies...
- InterpolInterpolInterpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
- North Atlantic Treaty Organization
- Nuclear Non-Proliferation TreatyNuclear Non-Proliferation TreatyThe Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is a landmark international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to...
- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and DevelopmentOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and DevelopmentThe Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an international economic organisation of 34 countries founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade...
- Organization for Security and Co-operation in EuropeOrganization for Security and Co-operation in EuropeThe Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe is the world's largest security-oriented intergovernmental organization. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, human rights, freedom of the press and fair elections...
- Pilgrims SocietyPilgrims SocietyThe Pilgrims Society, founded in 1902, is a British-American society established, in the words of American diplomat Joseph Choate, 'to promote good-will, good-fellowship, and everlasting peace between the United States and Great Britain'...
- Rim of the Pacific Exercise
- UKUSA CommunityUKUSA CommunityThe United Kingdom – United States of America Agreement is a multilateral agreement for cooperation in signals intelligence among the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It was first signed in March 1946 by the United Kingdom and the United States and later...
- United NationsUnited NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
- United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
- United Nations Security CouncilUnited Nations Security CouncilThe United Nations Security Council is one of the principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of...
- Universal Postal UnionUniversal Postal UnionThe Universal Postal Union is an international organization that coordinates postal policies among member nations, in addition to the worldwide postal system. The UPU contains four bodies consisting of the Congress, the Council of Administration , the Postal Operations Council and the...
- World BankWorld BankThe World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
- World Health OrganizationWorld Health OrganizationThe World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
- World Trade OrganizationWorld Trade OrganizationThe World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...
Strategic Alliance Cyber Crime Working Group
The Strategic Alliance Cyber Crime Working Group is an initiative by Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, the United Kingdom and headed by the United States as a "formal partnership between these nations dedicated to tackling larger global crime issues, particularly organized crime." The cooperation consists of "five countries from three continents banding together to fight cyber crime in a synergistic way by sharing intelligence, swapping tools and best practices, and strengthening and even synchronizing their respective laws."
Within this initiative, there is increased information sharing between the United Kingdom's Serious Organised Crime Agency
Serious Organised Crime Agency
The Serious Organised Crime Agency is a non-departmental public body of the Government of the United Kingdom under Home Office sponsorship...
and the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
on matters relating to serious fraud or cyber crime.
UKUSA Community
The UK-USA Security Agreement is an alliance of five English-speaking countries; Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States, for the sole purpose of sharing intelligence. The precursor to this agreement is essentially an extension of the historic BRUSA Agreement1943 BRUSA Agreement
The 1943 BRUSA Agreement was an agreement between the British and US governments to facilitate co-operation between the US War Department and the British Government Code and Cypher School...
which was signed in 1943. In association with the ECHELON
ECHELON
ECHELON is a name used in global media and in popular culture to describe a signals intelligence collection and analysis network operated on behalf of the five signatory states to the UK–USA Security Agreement...
system, all five nations are assigned to intelligence collection and analysis from different parts of the world. For example, the United Kingdom hunts for communications in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
west of the Ural Mountains whereas the United States has responsibility for gathering intelligence in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, Asiatic Russia, and northern mainland China
Mainland China
Mainland China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term that refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China . According to the Taipei-based Mainland Affairs Council, the term excludes the PRC Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and...
.
England and the United States
Billericay, England, UKBillericay
Billericay is a town and civil parish in the Basildon borough of Essex, England. It lies within the London Basin, has a population of 40,000, and constitutes a commuter town east of central London. The town has three secondary schools and a variety of open spaces...
and
Billerica, Massachusetts, USABillerica, Massachusetts
Billerica is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,243 at the 2010 census. It is the only town named Billerica in the United States and borrows its name from the town of Billericay in Essex, England.- History :...
Billericay, England, UKBillericay
Billericay is a town and civil parish in the Basildon borough of Essex, England. It lies within the London Basin, has a population of 40,000, and constitutes a commuter town east of central London. The town has three secondary schools and a variety of open spaces...
and
Fishers, Indiana, USAFishers, Indiana
Fishers is a town located in Fall Creek and Delaware townships, Hamilton County, Indiana, with a population of 76,794, according to the 2010 census. A suburb of Indianapolis, Fishers has grown rapidly in recent decades: about 350 people lived there in 1963, 2,000 in 1980, and only 7,200 as recently...
Birmingham, England, UKBirmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
and
Chicago, Illinois, USAChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
Bodmin, England, UK and Grass Valley, California, USAGrass Valley
-Places:United States* Grass Valley, California, a city in Nevada County** Roman Catholic Diocese of Grass Valley, a former diocese based in the California city* Little Grass Valley, California, a former town in Plumas County...
Boston, England, UKBoston, Lincolnshire
Boston is a town and small port in Lincolnshire, on the east coast of England. It is the largest town of the wider Borough of Boston local government district and had a total population of 55,750 at the 2001 census...
and
Boston, Massachusetts, USABoston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
Burton-upon-Trent, England, UKBurton upon Trent
Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a town straddling the River Trent in the east of Staffordshire, England. Its associated adjective is "Burtonian"....
and
Elkhart, Indiana, USAElkhart, Indiana
Elkhart is a city in Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. The city is located east of South Bend, northwest of Fort Wayne, east of Chicago, and north of Indianapolis...
Cheltenham, England, UKCheltenham
Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...
and
Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, USA Chester, England, UKChester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
and
Lakewood, Colorado, USALakewood, Colorado
Lakewood is a Home Rule Municipality that is the most populous city in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. Lakewood is the fifth most populous city in the State of Colorado and the 172nd most populous city in the United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that in April 1, 2010...
Coventry, England, UKCoventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
and
Coventry, Connecticut, USACoventry, Connecticut
Coventry is a town in Tolland County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 11,504 at the 2000 census. The birthplace of Captain Nathan Hale, Coventry is home to the Nathan Hale Homestead, which is now a museum open to the public....
Coventry, England, UKCoventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
and
Coventry, New York, USACoventry, New York
Coventry is a town in Chenango County, New York, United States. The population was 1,589 at the 2000 census. The town is named after Coventry, Connecticut by settlers from New England....
Coventry, England, UKCoventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
and
Coventry, Rhode Island, USACoventry, Rhode Island
Coventry is a town in Kent County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 35,014 at the 2010 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of . of it is land and of it is water...
Doncaster, England, UKDoncaster
Doncaster is a town in South Yorkshire, England, and the principal settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster. The town is about from Sheffield and is popularly referred to as "Donny"...
and
Wilmington, North Carolina, USAWilmington, North Carolina
Wilmington is a port city in and is the county seat of New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. The population is 106,476 according to the 2010 Census, making it the eighth most populous city in the state of North Carolina...
Durham, England, UK and Durham, North Carolina, USADurham, North Carolina
Durham is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the county seat of Durham County and also extends into Wake County. It is the fifth-largest city in the state, and the 85th-largest in the United States by population, with 228,330 residents as of the 2010 United States census...
Gravesend, England, UKGravesend, Kent
Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, on the south bank of the Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. It is the administrative town of the Borough of Gravesham and, because of its geographical position, has always had an important role to play in the history and communications of this part of...
and
Chesterfield, Virginia, USA Hertford, England, UKHertford
Hertford is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. Forming a civil parish, the 2001 census put the population of Hertford at about 24,180. Recent estimates are that it is now around 28,000...
and
Hartford, Connecticut, USAHartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
Kettering, England, UKKettering
Kettering is a market town in the Borough of Kettering, Northamptonshire, England. It is situated about from London. Kettering is mainly situated on the west side of the River Ise, a tributary of the River Nene which meets at Wellingborough...
and
Kettering, Ohio, USAKettering, Ohio
As of the census of 2000, there were 57,502 people, 25,657 households, and 15,727 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,077.4 people per square mile . There were 26,936 housing units at an average density of 1,441.6 per square mile...
Kingston-upon-Hull, England, UK and Raleigh, North Carolina, USARaleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...
Leeds, England, UKLeeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
and
Louisville, Kentucky, USALouisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
London, England, UKLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and
New York City, New York, USANew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
Manchester, England, UKManchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
and
Los Angeles, California, USALos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, UKNewcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
and
Atlanta, Georgia, USAAtlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
Oxford, England, UKOxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
and
Oxford, Michigan, USAOxford, Michigan
Oxford is a village in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 3,436 at the 2010 census. The village is located within Oxford Charter Township. The village occupies one square mile and is both politically and geographically a part of the township. The village calls itself...
Plymouth, England, UKPlymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
and
Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA Salisbury, England, UKSalisbury
Salisbury is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England and the only city in the county. It is the second largest settlement in the county...
and
Salisbury, Maryland, USASalisbury, Maryland
-Demographics:Salisbury is the principal city of the Salisbury-Ocean Pines CSA, a Combined Statistical Area that includes the Salisbury metropolitan area and the Ocean Pines micropolitan area , which had a combined population of 176,657 at the 2010 census.As of the census of 2000, there were...
Salisbury, England, UKSalisbury
Salisbury is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England and the only city in the county. It is the second largest settlement in the county...
and
Salisbury, North Carolina, USASalisbury, North Carolina
Salisbury is a city in Rowan County in North Carolina, a state of the United States of America. The population was 33,663 in the 2010 Census . It is the county seat of Rowan County...
Sheffield, England, UKSheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
and
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USAPittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
Southampton, England, UKSouthampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
and
Hampton, Virginia, USAHampton, Virginia
Hampton is an independent city that is not part of any county in Southeast Virginia. Its population is 137,436. As one of the seven major cities that compose the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, it is on the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula. Located on the Hampton Roads Beltway, it hosts...
Stratford-upon-Avon, England, UKStratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon is a market town and civil parish in south Warwickshire, England. It lies on the River Avon, south east of Birmingham and south west of Warwick. It is the largest and most populous town of the District of Stratford-on-Avon, which uses the term "on" to indicate that it covers...
and
Stratford, Connecticut, USAStratford, Connecticut
Stratford is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Housatonic River. It was founded by Puritans in 1639....
Stroud, England, UKStroud, Gloucestershire
Stroud is a market town and civil parish in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District.Situated below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills at the meeting point of the Five Valleys, the town is noted for its steep streets and cafe culture...
and
Stroud, Oklahoma, USAStroud, Oklahoma
Stroud is a city in Creek and Lincoln counties in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The population was 2,758 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Stroud is located at ....
Sunderland, England, UK and Washington D.C., USA Taunton, England, UK and Taunton, Massachusetts, USATaunton, Massachusetts
Taunton is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the seat of Bristol County and the hub of the Greater Taunton Area. The city is located south of Boston, east of Providence, north of Fall River and west of Plymouth. The City of Taunton is situated on the Taunton River...
Warwick, England, UKWarwick
Warwick is the county town of Warwickshire, England. The town lies upon the River Avon, south of Coventry and just west of Leamington Spa and Whitnash with which it is conjoined. As of the 2001 United Kingdom census, it had a population of 23,350...
and
Warwick, New York, USAWarwick, New York
Warwick is a town in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 30,764 at the 2000 census. The 2007 census population estimate is 32,669.The Town of Warwick is located in the southwest part of the county...
Warwick, England, UKWarwick
Warwick is the county town of Warwickshire, England. The town lies upon the River Avon, south of Coventry and just west of Leamington Spa and Whitnash with which it is conjoined. As of the 2001 United Kingdom census, it had a population of 23,350...
and
Warwick, Rhode Island, USAWarwick, Rhode Island
Warwick is a city in Kent County, Rhode Island, United States. It is the second largest city in the state, with a population of 82,672 at the 2010 census. Its mayor has been Scott Avedisian since 2000...
Whitby, England, UKWhitby
Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a combined maritime, mineral and tourist heritage, and is home to the ruins of Whitby Abbey where Caedmon, the...
and
Anchorage, Alaska, USAAnchorage, Alaska
Anchorage is a unified home rule municipality in the southcentral part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the northernmost major city in the United States...
Worcester, England, UK and Worcester, Massachusetts, USAWorcester, Massachusetts
Worcester is a city and the county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population is 181,045, making it the second largest city in New England after Boston....
Scotland and the United States
Aberdeen, Scotland, UK and Aberdeen, Washington, USAAberdeen, Washington
Aberdeen is a city in Grays Harbor County, Washington, United States, founded by Samuel Benn in 1884. Aberdeen was incorporated on May 12, 1890. The city is the economic center of Grays Harbor County, bordering the cities of Hoquiam and Cosmopolis...
Dundee, Scotland, UK and Alexandria, Virginia, USAAlexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2009, the city had a total population of 139,966. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as well as...
Dunfermline, Scotland, UKDunfermline
Dunfermline is a town and former Royal Burgh in Fife, Scotland, on high ground from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. According to a 2008 estimate, Dunfermline has a population of 46,430, making it the second-biggest settlement in Fife. Part of the town's name comes from the Gaelic word...
and
Sarasota, Florida, USA Edinburgh, Scotland, UK and San Diego, California, USA Inverness, Scotland, UKInverness
Inverness is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for the Highland council area, and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands of Scotland...
and
Inverness, Florida, USAInverness, Florida
Inverness is a city in Citrus County, Florida, United States. As of 2010, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 7,210. It is the county seat of Citrus County.-Geography:...
Prestwick, Scotland, UK and Vandalia, Ohio, USAVandalia, Ohio
Vandalia is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and a suburb of Dayton. Its population was 15,246 during the 2010 census. The James M. Cox Dayton International Airport is located in the city...
Stirling, Scotland, UK and Dunedin, Florida, USADunedin, Florida
Dunedin is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. The name comes from Dùn Èideann, the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. The population was 35,691 at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 36,632...
Stornoway, Scotland, UK and Pendleton, South Carolina, USAPendleton, South Carolina
Pendleton is a town in Anderson County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 2,966 at the 2000 census. It is a sister city of Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland....
Wales and the United States
Newport, Wales, UK and Annapolis, Maryland, USAAnnapolis, Maryland
Annapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland, as well as the county seat of Anne Arundel County. It had a population of 38,394 at the 2010 census and is situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east of Washington, D.C. Annapolis is...
Northern Ireland and the United States
Bangor, Northern Ireland, UKBangor, County Down
Bangor is a large town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is a seaside resort on the southern side of Belfast Lough and within the Belfast Metropolitan Area. Bangor Marina is one of the largest in Ireland, and holds Blue Flag status...
and
Virginia Beach, Virginia, USAVirginia Beach, Virginia
Virginia Beach is an independent city located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia, on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay...
Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK and
Nashville, Tennessee, USANashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, UK and
Anderson, South Carolina, USAAnderson, South Carolina
Anderson is a city in and the county seat of Anderson County, South Carolina, United States. The population was estimated at 26,242 in 2006, and the city was the center of an urbanized area of 70,530...
Derry, Northern Ireland, UK
Derry
Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...
and
Buffalo, New York, USABuffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
Newtonabbey, Northern Ireland, UK
Newtownabbey
Newtownabbey is a large town north of Belfast in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Sometimes considered to be a suburb of Belfast, it is separated from the rest of the city by Cavehill and Fortwilliam golf course...
and
Gilbert, Arizona, USAGilbert, Arizona
-Demographics:As of July 1, 2009, Maricopa Association of Governments, Census 2000. United States Census Bureau. there were 217,521 people, 74,147 housing units, and 3.01 persons per household....
UK-USA Friendship links
Liverpool, England, UKLiverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
and
Memphis, Tennessee, USAMemphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
Liverpool, England, UKLiverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
and
New Orleans, Louisiana, USANew Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
Newcastle, England, UK and Little Rock, Arkansas, USALittle Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
Wellingborough, England, UKWellingborough
Wellingborough is a market town and borough in Northamptonshire, England, situated some from the county town of Northampton. The town is situated on the north side of the River Nene, most of the older town is sited on the flanks of the hills above the river's current flood plain...
and
Willingboro, New Jersey, USAWillingboro Township, New Jersey
Willingboro is a Township in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States and a suburb of Philadelphia. As of the United States 2010 Census, the township population was 31,629....
Heritage
Unlike Britain, the U.S. remains highly religious, with the largest protestant denominations derivatives of British churches brought across the Atlantic by 18th century missionaries, such as the Baptists and Methodists. The Congregationalists and Episcopalians likewise have strong English roots. The American legal systems is largely based on English common law. The American system of local and government is rooted in English precedents, such as the offices of county courts and sheriffs.
In the area of economics and as two leading nations that both use a capitalist macroeconomic model, both the United Kingdom and the United States practice what is commonly referred to as an Anglo-Saxon economy
Anglo-Saxon economy
An Anglo-Saxon economy or Anglo-Saxon capitalism is a capitalist macroeconomic model in which levels of regulation and taxes are low, and government provides relatively fewer services.-Origins of the...
in which levels of regulation and taxes are low, and government provides a low to medium level of social services in return.
Since English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
is the de facto language of the United Kingdom and the United States, both nations belong to the English-speaking world
English-speaking world
The English-speaking world consists of those countries or regions that use the English language to one degree or another. For more information, please see:Lists:* List of countries by English-speaking population...
. However, the common language which binds the peoples of the United Kingdom and the United States does come with small differences in spelling, pronunciation, and the meaning of words
American and British English differences
This is one of a series of articles about the differences between British English and American English, which, for the purposes of these articles, are defined as follows:...
.
Independence Day
Independence Day (United States)
Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain...
, July 4, is a national celebration which commemorates the July 4, 1776 adoption of the Declaration of Independence
United States Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a...
from the British Empire. American defiance of Britain is expressed in the American national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner, written during the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
as the Americans beat off an attack on Baltimore.
Literature
Literature is transferred across the Atlantic Ocean, as evidenced by, the appeal of British authors such as William ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
, Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
, J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
, Jackie Collins
Jackie Collins
Jacqueline Jill "Jackie" Collins is an English novelist and former actress. She is the younger sister of actress Joan Collins. She has written 28 novels, all of which have appeared on the New York Times bestsellers list. In total, her books have sold over 400 million copies and have been...
, and J.K. Rowling in the United States, and American authors such as Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe was an American abolitionist and author. Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was a depiction of life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom...
, Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
, Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
and Dan Brown
Dan Brown
Dan Brown is an American author of thriller fiction, best known for the 2003 bestselling novel, The Da Vinci Code. Brown's novels, which are treasure hunts set in a 24-hour time period, feature the recurring themes of cryptography, keys, symbols, codes, and conspiracy theories...
in Britain. Henry James
Henry James
Henry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....
moved to Britain and was well known in both countries, as was T.S. Eliot. Eliot moved to England in 1914 and became a British subject in 1927. He was a dominant figure in literary criticism and greatly influenced the Modern period
Modernist poetry in English
Modernist poetry in English is generally considered to have emerged in the early years of the 20th century with the appearance of the Imagists. In common with many other modernists, these poets wrote in reaction to the perceived excesses of Victorian poetry, with its emphasis on traditional...
of British literature
British literature
British Literature refers to literature associated with the United Kingdom, Isle of Man and Channel Islands. By far the largest part of British literature is written in the English language, but there are bodies of written works in Latin, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Scots, Cornish, Manx, Jèrriais,...
.
Print journalism
British Sunday broadsheetBroadsheet
Broadsheet is the largest of the various newspaper formats and is characterized by long vertical pages . The term derives from types of popular prints usually just of a single sheet, sold on the streets and containing various types of material, from ballads to political satire. The first broadsheet...
newspaper The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
includes a condensed copy of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
.
Film
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
and George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
have had a large effect on British audiences in the United Kingdom, while the James Bond
James Bond (film series)
The James Bond film series is a British series of motion pictures based on the fictional character of MI6 agent James Bond , who originally appeared in a series of books by Ian Fleming. Earlier films were based on Fleming's novels and short stories, followed later by films with original storylines...
and Harry Potter
Harry Potter (film series)
The Harry Potter film series is a British-American film series based on the Harry Potter novels by the British author J. K. Rowling...
series of films have attracted high interest in the United States. Also, the animated films of Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
have continued to make an indelible mark and impression on British audiences, young and old, for almost 100 years. Films by Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
continuously make a lasting impact on a loyal fan base in the United States, as Alfred Hitchcock himself influenced notable American film makers such as John Carpenter
John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...
, in the horror and slasher film genres.
Production of films are often shared between the two nations, whether it be a concentrated use of British and American actors or the use of film studios located in London or Hollywood.
Theatre
Broadway theatreBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in New York City has toured London's West End theatre
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
over the years, with notable performances such as The Lion King
The Lion King (musical)
The Lion King is a musical based on the 1994 Disney animated film of the same name with music by Elton John and lyrics by Tim Rice along with the musical score created by Hans Zimmer with choral arrangements by Lebo M. Directed by Julie Taymor, the musical features actors in animal costumes as well...
, Grease
Grease (musical)
Grease is a 1971 musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. The musical is named for the 1950s United States working-class youth subculture known as the greasers. The musical, set in 1959 at fictional Rydell High School , follows ten working-class teenagers as they navigate the complexities of love,...
, Wicked
Wicked (musical)
Wicked is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. It is based on the Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West , a parallel novel of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and L. Frank Baum's classic story The Wonderful Wizard...
, and Rent
Rent (musical)
Rent is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème...
. British productions, such as Mamma Mia! and several of Andrew Lloyd Webber's
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
musicals, including Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical with lyrics by Tim Rice. The story is based on the "coat of many colors" story of Joseph from the Hebrew Bible's Book of Genesis. This was the first Lloyd Webber and Rice musical to be performed publicly...
, Cats
Cats (musical)
Cats is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot...
and The Phantom of the Opera
The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical)
The Phantom of the Opera is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the French novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux.The music was composed by Lloyd Webber, and most lyrics were written by Charles Hart, with additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe. Alan Jay Lerner was an early collaborator,...
have found success on Broadway. For many years, the comedies
Shakespearean comedy
In the First Folio, the plays of William Shakespeare were grouped into three categories: comedies, histories, and tragedies."Comedy", in its Elizabethan usage, had a very different meaning from modern comedy...
, histories
Shakespearean history
In the First Folio, the plays of William Shakespeare were grouped into three categories: comedies, histories, and tragedies. This categorisation has become established, although some critics have argued for other categories such as romances and problem plays. The histories were those plays based on...
, and tragedies
Shakespearean tragedy
Shakespeare wrote tragedies from the beginning of his career. One of his earliest plays was the Roman tragedy Titus Andronicus, which he followed a few years later with Romeo and Juliet. However, his most admired tragedies were written in a seven-year period between 1601 and 1608...
written by English playwright William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
have also proven to be overwhelmingly popular on the American stage.
Television
Both the United Kingdom and the United States have television shows which are similar, as they are either carried by the other nations' networks, or are re-created for distribution in their own nations. Some popular British television shows that were re-created for the American market in more recent years are The OfficeThe Office
The Office is a popular mockumentary/situation comedy TV show that was first made in the UK and has now been re-made in many other countries, with overall viewership in the hundreds of millions worldwide. The original version of The Office was created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. It...
, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is a television game show which offers large cash prizes for correctly answering a series of multiple-choice questions of increasing difficulty. The format is owned and licensed by Sony Pictures Television International. The maximum cash prize is one million pounds...
, Strictly Come Dancing
Strictly Come Dancing
Strictly Come Dancing is a British television show, featuring celebrities with professional dance partners competing in Ballroom and Latin dances. The title of the show suggests a continuation of the long-running series Come Dancing, with an allusion to the film Strictly Ballroom...
(Dancing With the Stars
Dancing with the Stars
Dancing with the Stars is the name of several international television series based on the format of the British TV series Strictly Come Dancing, which is distributed by BBC Worldwide – the commercial arm of the BBC. Currently the format has been licensed to over 35 countries...
), Top Gear Pop Idol
Pop Idol
Pop Idol is a British television series which debuted on ITV on 6 October 2001. The show was a talent contest to decide the best new young pop singer in the United Kingdom, based on viewer voting and participation. Two series were broadcast - one in 2001-02 and a second in 2003...
(American Idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
) and The X Factor
The X Factor (TV series)
The X Factor is a television talent show franchise originating in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for Pop Idol. It is a singing competition, now held in various countries, which pits contestants against each other. These contestants are aspiring pop singers drawn from...
. Some American television shows re-created for the British market in more recent years include The Apprentice and Deal or No Deal. Popular American television shows that are currently popular in the United Kingdom include The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, Modern Family
Modern Family
Modern Family is an American television comedy series created by Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan, which debuted on ABC on September 23, 2009. Lloyd and Levitan serve as showrunner and executive producers, under their Levitan-Lloyd Productions label...
, South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
, Scrubs
Scrubs (TV series)
Scrubs is an American medical comedy-drama television series created in 2001 by Bill Lawrence and produced by ABC Studios. The show follows the lives of several employees of the fictional Sacred Heart, a teaching hospital. It features fast-paced screenplay, slapstick, and surreal vignettes...
, Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
, Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
and the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
series.
The BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
airs two networks in the United States, BBC America
BBC America
BBC America is an American television network, owned and operated by BBC Worldwide, and available on both cable and satellite.-History:The channel launched on March 29, 1998, broadcasting comedy, drama and lifestyle programs from BBC Television and other British television broadcasters like ITV and...
and BBC World
BBC World
BBC World News is the BBC's international news and current affairs television channel. It has the largest audience of any BBC channel in the world...
. The American network PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
collaborates with the BBC and rebroadcasts British television shows in the United States such as Monty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a BBC TV sketch comedy series. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines...
, Keeping Up Appearances
Keeping Up Appearances
Keeping Up Appearances is a British sitcom created and written by Roy Clarke for the BBC. Centred on the life of eccentric, social-climbing snob Hyacinth Bucket , the sitcom portrays a social hierarchy-ruled British society...
, Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
, Nova
Nova
A nova is a cataclysmic nuclear explosion in a star caused by the accretion of hydrogen on to the surface of a white dwarf star, which ignites and starts nuclear fusion in a runaway manner...
, and Masterpiece Theatre
Masterpiece Theatre
Masterpiece is a drama anthology television series produced by WGBH Boston. It premiered on Public Broadcasting Service on January 10, 1971, making it America's longest-running weekly prime time drama series. The series has presented numerous acclaimed British productions...
. The BBC also frequently collaborates with American network HBO, showing recent American mini-series in the United Kingdom such as Rome
Rome (TV series)
Rome is a British-American–Italian historical drama television series created by Bruno Heller, John Milius and William J. MacDonald. The show's two seasons premiered in 2005 and 2007, and were later released on DVD. Rome is set in the 1st century BC, during Ancient Rome's transition from Republic...
, John Adams
John Adams (TV miniseries)
John Adams is a 2008 American television miniseries chronicling most of President John Adams's political life and his role in the founding of the United States. Paul Giamatti portrays John Adams. The miniseries was directed by Tom Hooper. Kirk Ellis wrote the screenplay based on the book John...
, Band of Brothers, and The Gathering Storm
The Gathering Storm (2002 film)
The Gathering Storm is a BBC–HBO co-produced television biographical film about Winston Churchill in the years just prior to World War II...
. Likewise, the American network Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
has partnered with the BBC by televising recent British mini-series in the United States such as Planet Earth
Planet Earth (TV series)
Planet Earth is a 2006 television series produced by the BBC Natural History Unit. Five years in the making, it was the most expensive nature documentary series ever commissioned by the BBC, and also the first to be filmed in high definition...
and The Blue Planet
The Blue Planet
The Blue Planet is a BBC nature documentary series narrated by David Attenborough, first transmitted in the UK from 12 September 2001.Described as "the first ever comprehensive series on the natural history of the world's oceans", each of the eight 50-minute episodes examines a different aspect of...
, the latter popularly known as The Blue Planet: Seas of Life in the American format. The United States' public affairs channel C-Span
C-SPAN
C-SPAN , an acronym for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, is an American cable television network that offers coverage of federal government proceedings and other public affairs programming via its three television channels , one radio station and a group of websites that provide streaming...
, broadcasts Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime minister's questions is a constitutional convention in the United Kingdom that takes place every Wednesday during which the prime minister spends half an hour answering questions from members of parliament...
every Sunday.
On some British digital television platforms, it is also possible to watch American television channels direct from the United Kingdom, such as Fox News, as well as American television channels tailored for British audiences such as CNBC Europe
CNBC Europe
CNBC Europe is a business and financial news television channel, the pan-European sister station of CNBC. The network is owned and operated by NBC Universal and headquartered in London, where it shares the Adrian Smith-designed 10 Fleet Place building with Dow Jones...
, CNN Europe
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, ESPN Classic UK
ESPN Classic (UK)
The British version of ESPN Classic launched on 13 March 2006 on Sky channel 442, the first channel in the UK under the ESPN branding. On 3 August 2009, ESPN Classic launched on Virgin Media channel 533 as a part of the XL pack, and in early 2011 video on demand content started to appear on the...
, Comedy Central UK, and FX UK
FX (UK)
FX is a television channel in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, owned by Fox, launched in 12 January 2004. It was originally branded as FX289 in reference to its Sky EPG number. It was rebranded to FX in May 2005 as the channel moved in the Sky EPG.FX targets a demographic between 25...
. The Super Bowl
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
, the National Football League's
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
championship tournament of American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
which occurs every February, has been broadcast in the United Kingdom since 1982.
Music
American artists such as Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
, Tina Turner
Tina Turner
Tina Turner is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards and her achievements in the rock music genre have led many to call her the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll".Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the...
, Cher
Cher
Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...
, Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
, Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
, Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Diana Ross
Diana Ross
Diana Ernestine Earle Ross is an American singer, record producer, and actress. Ross was lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that included successful ventures into film and Broadway...
, Britney Spears
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
, Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera
Christina María Aguilera is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993–1994...
, Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
and Beyoncé
Beyoncé Knowles
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles , often known simply as Beyoncé, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she enrolled in various performing arts schools and was first exposed to singing and dancing competitions as a child...
, are popular in the United Kingdom. British artists such as The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
, Sting, The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
, Shirley Bassey
Shirley Bassey
Dame Shirley Bassey, DBE , is a Welsh singer. She found fame in the late 1950s and was "one of the most popular female vocalists in Britain during the last half of the 20th century"...
, Tom Jones
Tom Jones (singer)
Sir Thomas John Woodward, OBE , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer.Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel – and sold over 100 million records...
, David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
, The Spice Girls, The Bee Gees, Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse
Amy Jade Winehouse was an English singer-songwriter known for her powerful deep contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres including R&B, soul and jazz. Winehouse's 2003 debut album, Frank, was critically successful in the UK and was nominated for the Mercury Prize...
, KT Tunstall
KT Tunstall
Kate Victoria "KT" Tunstall is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist from St Andrews, Scotland. She broke into the public eye with a 2004 live solo performance of her song "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" on Later... with Jools Holland...
, Leona Lewis
Leona Lewis
Leona Louise Lewis is a British singer and songwriter. Lewis first came to prominence in 2006 when she won the third series of the British television series The X Factor....
, Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
(Elton John recorded Candle in the Wind
Candle in the Wind
"Candle in the Wind" is a song with music by Elton John and lyrics by Bernie Taupin. It was originally written in 1973, in honour of Marilyn Monroe, who had died 11 years earlier....
which, to date, is the best ever selling single worldwide) and Coldplay
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a...
have achieved much success in the large American market. Undoubtedly, the popular music of both nations has had a strong sway on each other.
In the United Kingdom, many Hollywood films as well as Broadway musicals are closely associated and identified with the musical scores and soundtracks created by famous American composers such as George Gershwin
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
, Rodgers and Hammerstein
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were a well-known American songwriting duo, usually referred to as Rodgers and Hammerstein. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age of the medium...
, Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995...
, John Williams
John Williams
John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...
, Alan Silvestri
Alan Silvestri
Alan Anthony Silvestri is an American film composer and conductor.-Career:Silvestri is best known for his collaborations with director Robert Zemeckis, having scored Romancing the Stone , the Back to the Future trilogy , Who Framed Roger Rabbit , Death Becomes Her , Forrest Gump , Contact ,...
, Jerry Goldsmith
Jerry Goldsmith
Jerrald King Goldsmith was an American composer and conductor most known for his work in film and television scoring....
, and James Horner
James Horner
James Roy Horner is an American composer, orchestrator and conductor of orchestral and film music. He is noted for the integration of choral and electronic elements in many of his film scores, and for frequent use of Celtic musical elements...
.
The Celtic music
Celtic music
Celtic music is a term utilised by artists, record companies, music stores and music magazines to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic people of Western Europe...
of the United Kingdom has had a dynamic effect upon American music. In particular, the traditional music
Old-time music
Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music, with roots in the folk music of many countries, including England, Scotland, Ireland and countries in Africa. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dance, buck dance, and clogging. The genre also...
of the Southern United States
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
is descended from traditional Celtic music and English folk music
Folk music of England
Folk music of England refers to various types of traditionally based music, often contrasted with courtly, classical and later commercial music, for which evidence exists from the later medieval period. It has been preserved and transmitted orally, through print and later through recordings...
of the colonial period, and the musical traditions of the South eventually gave rise to country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
and, to a lesser extent, American folk
American folk music revival
The American folk music revival was a phenomenon in the United States that began during the 1940s and peaked in popularity in the mid-1960s. Its roots went earlier, and performers like Josh White, Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Richard Dyer-Bennett, Oscar Brand, Jean Ritchie, John Jacob...
.
The birth of jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, swing, big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
, and especially rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
, all developed and originating in the United States, had greatly influenced the later development of rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
in the United Kingdom, particularly British rock bands such as The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
and the Rolling Stones, while its American precursor, the blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, greatly influenced British electric rock.
Quotations
See also
- Foreign policy of the United States
- Foreign relations of the United KingdomForeign relations of the United KingdomThe diplomatic foreign relations of the United Kingdom are implemented by the United Kingdom's Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The UK was the world's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Throughout history it has wielded significant influence upon other nations via the British...
- Special RelationshipSpecial relationshipThe Special Relationship is a phrase used to describe the exceptionally close political, diplomatic, cultural, economic, military and historical relations between the United Kingdom and the United States, following its use in a 1946 speech by British statesman Winston Churchill...
- Transatlantic relationsTransatlantic relationsTransatlantic relations refers to the historic, cultural, political, economic and social relations between countries on both side of the Atlantic Ocean. Sometimes specifically those between the United States, Canada and the countries in Europe, although other meanings are possible.There are a...
External links
- History of United Kingdom - United States relations
- John Bull and Uncle Sam: Four Centuries of British American Relations
- An analysis of the Special Relationship from a British perspective. From the Second World War to the latest global problems facing the United States.
- Lecture: Anti-Americanism and American Exceptionalism
- The Hatred of England
- The Other War: FDR's Battle Against Churchill and the British Empire.