United Kingdom – United States relations

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British-American relations

United Kingdom	United States

British-American relations widely encompass and span 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 Kingdom as well as the United States, a remnant of the British Empire itself during the Colonial Period, are bound by shared history, a common language and legal system, culture, and kindred, ancestral blood lines in British 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, the United Kingdom and the United States cemented these deeply rooted links during World War II into became known as the Special Relationship.

Today, British foreign policy as well as United States foreign policy affirm each other as their most important bilateral partnership and alliance in the world, as evidenced in aligned political affairs, intelligence sharing, and joint military operations closely carried out and executed between the British Armed Forces and the United States Armed Forces.

Contents 1 Country comparison 2 History 2.1 Origins 2.2 American Revolution 2.3 War of 1812 2.4 Disputes 1815–1860 2.5 American Civil War 2.6 Venezuelan and Border disputes 2.7 The Great Rapprochement 2.8 World War I 2.9 Inter-war years 2.10 World War II 2.11 Cold War 2.12 Post Cold War 2.13 War on Terrorism 2.14 Present status 3 Trade and Investment 4 Tourism 5 Transportation 6 State visits 7 Diplomacy 8 Common memberships 9 Sister cities 10 Heritage 11 Popular Culture 11.1 Literature 11.2 Print Journalism 11.3 Film 11.4 Theatre 11.5 Television 11.6 Music 12 See also 13 Bibliography 14 Notes 15 References 16 External links

[edit] Country comparison

	United Kingdom	United States
Population	61,612,300	306,806,000
Area	244,820 km2 (94,526 sq mi)	9,826,630 km2 (3,794,066 sq mi )
Population Density	246 /km2 (637 /sq mi)	31/km2 (80/sq mi)
Capital	London (de facto)	Washington, D.C.
Largest City	London – 7,556,900 (13,945,000 Metro)	New York City – 8,214,426 (18,818,536 Metro)
Government	Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy	Federal presidential constitutional republic
Official languages	English (de facto)	English (de facto)
Main religions	71.6% Christianity, 23% non-Religious or unstated, 3% Islam, 1% Hinduism	75% Christianity, 20% non-Religious, 2% Judaism 1% Buddhism 1% Islam
Ethnic groups	86% White British, 5% White Other, 6% Asian (South and East), 2% Black, 2% Multiracial and other	74% White American, 14.8% Hispanic and Latino Americans (of any race), 13.4% African American, 6.5% Some other race, 4.4% Asian American, 2.0% Two or more races, 0.68% American Indian or Alaska Native, 0.14% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
GDP (nominal)	US$2.674 trillion ($43,875 per capita)	US$14.264 trillion ($46,859 per capita)
British Americans	224,000 American-born people live in the UK	678,000 British-born people live in the US
Military expenditures	$64 billion	$651 billion

[edit] History

[edit] Origins

The first attempt of English colonization was the Lost Colony in 1585. Led by Sir Walter Raleigh who represented Queen Elizabeth I, the colony would ultimately fail by 1587, due to an unsustainable supply of food and the alleged disappearance and abandonment by the colonists.

The first successful English settlement in mainland North America was the Jamestown Settlement, founded in 1607 for King James I of England. The Pilgrims were a small Protestant sect based in England and the Netherlands. One group sailed on the Mayflower and settled in Massachusetts.

After drawing up the Mayflower Compact by which they gave themselves broad powers of self-governance, they established the small Plymouth Colony in 1620. The Puritans established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629 with 400 settlers. They sought to reform the Church of England by creating a new, pure church in the New World.

The first Africans to be brought to the American colonies landed in Virginia in 1619. These individuals appear to have been treated as indentured servants. During the colonial period, every colony was involved in the slave trade.

People enslaved in the mid-Atlantic and New England colonies typically worked as house servants, artisans, laborers and craftsmen. Early on, slaves in the South worked primarily in agriculture, on farms and plantations growing indigo, rice, cotton, and tobacco. Likewise, mercantilism provided a positive balance of trade for the American colonies and its mother country.

[edit] American Revolution

The Thirteen Colonies had limited self government. Prefaced by debt accrued during the French and Indian War, tensions escalated from 1765 to 1775 over burdened issues of taxation without representation and control, ultimately leading to the American War of Independence.

Additionally, British mercantilist policies benefiting the mother country resulted in trade restrictions, which limited the growth of the American economy and artificially constrained colonial merchants' earning potential. The Declaration of Independence of 1776 was an internally controversial decisive break.

British military efforts under the command of General Lord Cornwallis failed to defeat the American colonials, French, and Spanish in 1781 at the Siege of Yorktown. Hence, the formal recognition of the United States of America as a sovereign nation was finalized in the Treaty of Paris of 1783.

In 1785, John Adams was appointed the first American 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 again in 1793, relations verged on war. The United States and Great Britain signed the Jay Treaty in 1794, which established a decade of peace and prosperous trade relations. That broke down in 1805.^[1]

[edit] War of 1812

After relations were on the verge of war in 1805, the United States imposed several trade embargoes, namely the Embargo Act of 1807, and the Royal Navy negligently boarded American ships and impressed sailors. The War of 1812 was instigated by causes made by the British and it was further initiated by the United States under President James Madison as a means to protect American trading rights and freedom of the seas for neutral countries.

Another motivation included American anger due to British military support for Native Americans defending their tribal lands from encroaching American pioneers. Additionally, the United States had the desire for territorial expansion northward and westward, underlying its belief in Manifest Destiny.

The initial American winter action, a planned invasion of British North America, including the successful destruction of the colonial capital of York, was eventually repelled when in 1814, the British raided Washington D.C. and burned the White House. After the United States gained complete naval control and supremacy of the Great Lakes by defeating the Royal Navy in numerous engagements, a total British attack from the north was prevented.

Negotiations led to the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war by restoring the status quo ante bellum. No territorial gains were made on either side.

Consequently, before word could be sent to both American and British military commanders that the war was over, Great Britain suffered a major defeat and handed the United States, under the command of General Andrew Jackson, a victory at the Battle of New Orleans.

[edit] Disputes 1815–1860

The international slave trade was gradually suppressed after the United Kingdom passed the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act in 1807, and the United States passed a similar law in 1808. All slaves in the British Empire were emancipated in 1833, with compensation to the slave owners.

The Monroe Doctrine of 1823, a unilateral response to a British suggestion of a joint declaration, expressed American hostility to further European encroachment in the Western hemisphere, but enjoyed British approval and was made effective 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 American 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 of 1842 resolved these issues and finalized the border.^[2]

In 1859, the Pig War determined the question of where the border should be in the San Juan Islands and Gulf Islands.

[edit] American Civil War

In the American Civil War, the Confederate States of America assumed that the British would prove sympathetic, despite their firm view on slavery. Though their first attempt to provoke British intervention by using an embargo of cotton exports was a failure, the Trent Affair, when a U.S. ship stopped a British civilian vessel and took off two Confederate diplomats, almost provoked a third war between the United States and the United Kingdom.

However, President Abraham Lincoln was against fighting on two fronts and U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward was able to smooth matters over. Despite intense American protests, the British allowed the CSS Alabama to leave port as a commerce raider.

After the war, Great Britain abided by the arbitration of an international tribunal and paid compensation to the United States for the activities of the Alabama as part of the Treaty of Washington.^[3]

[edit] Venezuelan and Border disputes

In 1895, President Grover Cleveland intervened in a dispute over the border between British Guiana and Venezuela by demanding arbitration, which was agreed to and resolved by arbitration in Great Britain's favor. Disputes over the Alaska-British North America border were resolved by arbitration in 1903, as a British judge sided with the Americans against their northern neighbors--- who were outraged to be sacrificed for the benefit of Anglo-American harmony.^[4]

[edit] The 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 British Empire in the two decades before World War I. Since the American War of Independence, the United States and the British Empire's relationship had been troubled.

However, the differences that had separated an agrarian and anti-imperialist United States and the industrialized British Empire had rapidly diminished in the decades preceding the Great War. With the gradual decline of Anglophobia and the rise of the United States as a great power with its own imperial possessions in the Caribbean and the Pacific, Great Britain was also desirous of a long-term ally that would prevent an upset in Britain's balance of power, which the German Empire and Russian Empire appeared to threaten.

[edit] World War I

After victory in the Spanish-American War, the United States acquired numerous overseas possessions—Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, and many others, and had begun to build the Great White Fleet as a newfound symbol of its enormous power projection.

Because of this, both the United Kingdom and the German Empire engaged in propaganda campaigns designed to win over a potential World War I alliance with the United States. The British were able to guarantee a price for American cotton producers, who were the most affected by the loss of trade with Germany and Central Europe.

President Woodrow Wilson then opted to allow the munitions trade to continue, despite disputes over freedom of the seas because of the British blockade of Germany and complaints of a 'navalism' like German 'militarism'. This policy meant that the United States would supply only the Entente powers.

However, at the start of the war, the unrestricted activities of German agents against British interests, as well as the United States Federal Government's refusal to check the Indian sedetionist 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 Federal Government, prompting the United States Atlantic fleet to dispatch Destroyers to the Pacific to protect the sovereignty of American vessels. However, this dispute did not calm down before November 1916.^[5]

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 became more obvious, American public opinion was strongly influenced. When Germany responded in 1916 with a submarine blockade of the United Kingdom, the sinking of the RMS Lusitania by a German U-boat led to a protest by the United States and a strong swing in public opinion against Germany.

Germany 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, but the United States declared war on Germany. The United States joined the Allies, and sent hundreds of thousands of troops under the command of General John J. Pershing, though initially slowly, to the Western front and were instrumental in hastening the end of the war.

Though President Wilson had wanted to wage war for cause of humanity, the negotiations over the Treaty of Versailles made plain 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 those of Germany. Financial reparations were imposed on Germany, despite British reservations and American protests, largely because of the French desire for a punitive peace.^[2]

[edit] Inter-war years

The Great War was the end of the Royal Navy's superiority, an eclipse acknowledged in the Washington Naval Treaty, when the United States and the United Kingdom were allocated equal tonnage quotas. American policies on immigration and trade fostered a Pacific rivalry with Japan rather than an Atlantic rivalry.

During the Great Depression, the United States was preoccupied with its own economic recovery and, espousing an isolationist policy, was only sporadically active in foreign affairs. After the Americans imposed a high Smoot-Hawley tariff in 1930, the United Kingdom, Canada and the Empire built up imperial trade preferences, thereby diverting trade internally and away from the United States.

The United Kingdom engaged in appeasement with Nazi Germany while pursuing limited rearmament. The Abdication Crisis, while absorbing popular interest in both nations, did not become a foreign relations issue. At the insistence of Prime Minister 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, the latter of which he finally did choose.

Tensions over the Irish question declined with the independence of Ireland, and with the successful ambassadorship of Joseph P. Kennedy in the late 1930s.^[6]

[edit] World War II

Though much of the American public was sympathetic to the United Kingdom and France during their dangerous confrontation with Nazi Germany, there was widespread demand for American neutrality. President Franklin Roosevelt's cash-and-carry policy allowed the United Kingdom and France to order munitions from the United States.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill, whose mother was American, had become prime minister after the Allies' failure to prevent the German invasion of Norway. After the fall of France, Roosevelt gave the United Kingdom and later the Soviet Union all aid short of war, including the Destroyers for Bases Agreement of 1940 and Lend-lease in the form of Sherman tanks, fighter airplanes, ammunition, food, and medical supplies.

Before the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Congressional declaration of war on Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan in 1941, two United States Navy destroyers had already been torpedoed on convoy duties in the North Atlantic. The United States then became heavily involved in the war in Europe.

It was during this period of extremely close co-operation that the special relationship was created.^[7] Millions of American servicemen based in England led to some friction and to this relationship being explored in art and film, most particularly A Matter of Life and Death and A Canterbury Tale.

As a part of their military collaboration throughout the war, scientists and physicists from both the United States and the United Kingdom, headed by American Robert Oppenheimer, worked on the Manhattan Project in total secrecy, which eventually achieved the objective of building an atomic bomb before the Nazi's could obtain such a weapon.

[edit] Cold War

Immediately following World War II, the United Kingdom found itself in virtual financial ruin. Due to many hardships during and after the toll of war, the British Empire went into decline as several of its overseas colonies began the process of de-colonization, most notably, the independence of India which happened in 1947.

Furthermore, the United Kingdom found itself at the mercy of American economic policy. 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 $586m (£145m in 1945) and $3,750m in line of credit (£930m in 1945) which was to be paid off in 50 annual installments. The last payment occurred on December 31, 2006. ^[8]

By the end of World War II, the United States and the United Kingdom became founding members of the United Nations, as well as two of the five permanent members of the Security Council. They were suspicious of the motives of their former ally, the Soviet Union, under Joseph Stalin. Rising tensions between the capitalist and communist powers led to the Cold War and an era of close cooperation between the United States and the United Kingdom which included the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a mutual-defense alliance.

As the British Empire dissolved throughout the world, the United States became one of two world superpowers along with the Soviet Union, while the United Kingdom became the most important partner with the United States on the Western side of the Cold War. Through the 1958 US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement the United States assisted the United Kingdom in nuclear weapon development.

Forces from both countries were involved in the Korean War, fighting under United Nations command. The United States had become the undisputable leading Western power and pursued a mixed anti-colonial and anti-communist policy, resulting in the demand that the United Kingdom and France end their invasion of Egypt in 1956 during the Suez Crisis, or otherwise risk economic sanctions. This threat made by President Dwight Eisenhower led to an immediate British and French pull out of their military occupation as well as the resignation of Prime Minister Anthony Eden.

The United States 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 its lack of support for France and the United Kingdom over the Suez Crisis weighed heavily on the minds of many in Europe, and this sentiment extended in the United Kingdom by Harold Wilson's refusal to send British troops to Indochina.

Protests against the introduction of medium-range weapons which might have allowed a nuclear war to be confined to Europe became a fixture of British politics in the eighties, which in the end, the United States eventually began sending missiles to.^[9][10]

Throughout the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher was strongly supportive of President Reagan's unwavering stance towards the Soviet Union. During the Soviet war in Afghanistan, both the Americans and the British provided arms to the anti-Soviet Mujahadeen rebels in Afghanistan. Often described as 'political soulmates' and a high point in the Special Relationship, both President Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher met with Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev on numerous occasions.

On July 29, 1981, First Lady Nancy Reagan attended what is often called the 'wedding of the century,' the nuptials of Charles and Diana, The Prince and Princess of Wales at St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

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 Casper Weinberger supplied the British military with equipment.^[11]

In October 1983, the United States and a coalition of Caribbean nations undertook Operation Urgent Fury, the invasion of the Commonwealth island nation of Grenada. Grenada had seen a bloody Marxist coup and neighboring countries asked the United States to intervene militarily, which it did successfully despite earlier having made assurances to a deeply concerned British government.

[edit] Post Cold War

When the United States became the world's lone superpower after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, new threats emerged which confronted the United States and its NATO allies. In 1991, the United States, followed by the United Kingdom, provided the two largest forces respectively for the coalition army which liberated Kuwait in the Persian Gulf War.

In 1997, the British Labour party were elected to office for the first time in eighteen years. The new prime minister, Tony Blair, and President Bill Clinton both used the expression 'Third Way' to describe their center-left ideologies. Forces from both countries were again used to impose peace during the Kosovo War.^[9]

In August 1997, the American people expressed solidarity with the British nation, sharing in its grief and sense of shock on the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, who perished in a car crash in Paris, France. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton attended the funeral at Westminster Abbey on September 6, 1997.

[edit] War on Terrorism

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 President George W. Bush's strongest international supporters.

With permission by Queen Elizabeth II, the American National Anthem was played in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace during Guard Mounting in the presence of Prince Andrew, Duke of York and then United States Ambassador to the United Kindgom, 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, 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 that entered Iraq.^[12]

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, British support among the public for the Iraq war had plummeted.^[13]

Despite Prime Minister Tony Blair's historically low approval ratings with the British public, 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." ^[14]

[edit] Present status

Present British policy is that the relationship with the United States represents the United Kingdom's "most important bilateral relationship" in the world.^[15] United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton paid tribute to the relationship in February 2009 by saying, "it stands the test of time."^[16]

On March 3, 2009, Prime Minister Gordon Brown made his first visit to the Obama White House. During his visit, he presented the President a gift, a pen holder carved from the HMS Gannet, which served anti-slavery missions off the coast of Africa. President 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. First Lady Michelle Obama gave the sons of the Prime Minister two Marine One helicopter toys.^[17] During this visit to the United States, Prime Minister Brown made an address to a joint session of the United States Congress, a privilege rarely accorded to foreign heads of government.

On a personal level, both America's First Family and Britain's Royal Family have clearly developed a fond closeness. This was illustrated by the recent breach of protocol between Queen Elizabeth II and First Lady Michelle Obama, who in gestures of good will and friendship, publicly put their arms around each other during a party held at Buckingham Palace on April 2, 2009 in conjunction with the London G20 summit. ^[18] On June 13, 2009, First Lady Michelle Obama and her two children, Sasha Obama and Malia Obama, were privately received by Queen Elizabeth II. During the private visit, the Obama children were granted a rare and unprecedented three-hour tour of the State rooms at Buckingham Palace. Both The Queen and the First Lady are known to have discussed their mutual love of gardening, the countryside, and fashion. ^[19]

[edit] 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. ^[20]

The United States and the United Kingdom share the world's largest foreign direct investment partnership. American investment in the United Kingdom reached $255.4 billion in 2002, while British direct investment in the United States totaled $283.3 billion.^[21]

[edit] Tourism

In 2007, 4.5 million Britons traveled to the United States for leisure and recreational purposes, spending on average $3,269 (£2,000) per person.^[22] In 2008, 3.6 million Americans traveled to the United Kingdom for leisure and recreational purposes,^[23] spending a total of $4.4 billion (£2.7 billion).^[24]

[edit] Transportation

New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport is the most popular destination for traveler's flying out of London Heathrow Airport. Approximately 2,802,870 people on multiple daily non-stop flights flew from Heathrow to JFK in 2008.^[25] Concorde, British Airway's flagship supersonic airliner for over 20 years that flew the traditional route between London's Heathrow and New York's JFK in under 3 1/2 hours, had its first operational flight between the two hubs on November 23, 1977 and the last being on October 23, 2003.

Cunard Line, a British shipping company which is owned by American parent company, Carnival Corporation, provides seasonal trans-Atlantic crossings aboard the RMS Queen Mary 2 and the MS Queen Victoria between Southampton, England and New York City.

[edit] State visits

Reciprocal state and official visits have been carried out by Presidents of the United States as well as the British monarch. In addition, Queen Elizabeth II has met and dined with ten American presidents during her reign (Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr., and Obama), with the notable exception of President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Royal visits to the United States

• 1939 State Visit by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth
• 1957 State Visit by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh (350th anniversary of the Jamestown Settlement)
• 1976 State Visit by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh (Celebration of the U.S. Bicentennial)
• 1983 Official Visit by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh
• 1991 State Visit by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh
• 2007 State Visit by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh (400th anniversary of the Jamestown Settlement)

Presidential visits to the United Kingdom

• 1918 Official Visit by President Woodrow Wilson and First Lady Edith Wilson
• 1982 Official Visit by President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan
• 2003 State Visit by President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush

[edit] Diplomacy

Of United States London (Embassy) Edinburgh (Consulate General) Belfast (Consulate General) Hamilton, Bermuda (Consulate General)

Of United Kingdom Washington, D.C. (Embassy) Atlanta (Consulate-General) Boston (Consulate-General) Chicago (Consulate-General) Houston (Consulate-General) Los Angeles (Consulate-General) Miami (Consulate-General) New York (Consulate-General) San Francisco (Consulate-General) Denver (Consulate) Orlando (Consulate)

[edit] Common memberships

UKUSA Community
Australia Canada New Zealand United Kingdom United States of America

The United States and the United Kingdom are both founding as well as common members of several international organizations and global institutions. For obvious political reasons and despite both nations being in the Anglosphere, the United States, unlike the United Kingdom, is not a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

• United Nations
• United Nations Security Council (Both nations are two of five permanent members—UK, USA, China, Russia, and France, each with a veto power.)
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization
• Group of Eight
• Group of Ten
• G20
• UKUSA Community
• International Monetary Fund
• World Bank
• Interpol
• UNESCO
• Pilgrims Society
• International Olympic Committee
• Food and Agriculture Organization
• International Telecommunication Union
• British-American Project
• International Chamber of Commerce
• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
• World Trade Organization
• World Health Organization
• Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (Both nations are two of five NPT recognized nuclear powers—UK, USA, China, Russia, and France.)
• International Atomic Energy Agency
• International Court of Justice

[edit] Sister cities

• Birmingham, UK and Chicago, USA
• Edinburgh, UK and San Diego, USA
• Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK and Atlanta, USA
• Belfast, UK and Nashville, USA
• Sheffield, UK and Pittsburgh, USA
• Sunderland, UK and Washington D.C., USA
• London, UK and New York City, USA
• Leeds, UK and Louisville, USA

[edit] Heritage

Because thirteen states in the United States are historical remnants of the original Thirteen Colonies, the United States and the United Kingdom retain significant shared threads of cultural heritage, many of which are common to all Anglosphere countries. The English-speaking peoples of the United States and United Kingdom are historically Christian, although increasingly secular and diverse in the modern era. The legal systems of both nations are based on common law. Likewise, the United States Constitution, created by the Founding Fathers of the United States, was influenced by the Magna Carta.

Since English is the de facto language of both nations, the United States and the United Kingdom are members of the Anglosphere. However, the common language which binds the peoples of the United Kingdom and the United States does come with significant differences in spelling, pronunciation, and the meaning of words.

Thanksgiving Day, a federal holiday celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday of every November, is a traditional family gathering in remembrance of the Pilgrims, settlers who sailed from England to the New World, and their first seasonal harvest and feast in 1621.

Independence Day, a federal holiday celebrated in the United States every 4th of July, is a national celebration which commemorates the July 4, 1776 signing of the Declaration of Independence, the birth of the American republic, the dissolution of ancestral links and the modern renewal of good relations with the mother country, Great Britain.

[edit] Popular Culture

[edit] Literature

Literature also crosses over the Atlantic Ocean, as evidenced by, the appeal of British authors such as William Shakespeare and J.K. Rowling in the United States, and American authors such as Stephen King and Michael Crichton in the United Kingdom. T.S. Eliot, a poet and playwright who moved to England in 1914 and became a British subject in 1927, was a leading American author who greatly influenced the Modern period of British literature.

[edit] Print Journalism

British Sunday broadsheet newspaper The Observer includes a condensed copy of The New York Times.^[26]

[edit] Film

There is much crossover appeal in the modern entertainment culture of the United States and the United Kingdom. For example, Hollywood blockbuster movies made by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas have had a gigantic 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. Walt Disney's films have continued to make an indelible mark and incredible impression on British audiences for almost 100 years. Production of films has often been shared between the two countries – whether it be a concentrated use of British and American actors or use of film studios from both nations.

[edit] Theatre

The Broadway theatre district in New York City has toured London's West End theatre district over the years, with notable performances such as The Lion King, Grease, Mamma Mia! and Rent. In contrast, Andrew Lloyd Webber's theatrical scores such as Cats and The Phantom of the Opera have found instant success on Broadway. For many years, William Shakespeare's histories, comedies, and tragedies have also proven to be popular in American theatres.

[edit] Television

Both countries' television shows are similar, as many American and British television series 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 are The Office, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Steptoe and Son (as Sanford and Son), Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Pop Idol (American Idol), Queer as Folk, and Til Death Us Do Part (All in the Family). Some American shows re-created in the United Kingdom are The Apprentice and The Price Is Right. Popular American shows that are also popular in the United Kingdom include The Simpsons, South Park, Friends, The West Wing, Will & Grace, Scrubs, Family Guy, and the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation series. Many British actors appear on American television and vice-versa, for example:

• Star Trek francise - Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Marina Sirtis (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Dominic Keating (Star Trek: Enterprise)
• Lost – Henry Ian Cusick, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Rebecca Mader, Dominic Monaghan, Marsha Thomason, Sonya Walger
• Boston Legal – Tara Summers, Saffron Burrows
• ER – Parminder Nagra, Alex Kingston
• House (TV Series) – Hugh Laurie
• Prison Break – Dominic Purcell, Wentworth Miller
• 24 – Sandrine Holt
• Desperate Housewives – Nicollette Sheridan, Dougray Scott
• CSI franchise – Louise Lombard (CSI), Claire Forlani (CSI: NY), Sonya Walger (CSI: NY)
• Law and Order – Linus Roache
• Days of Our Lives - James Scott
• The Wire – Dominic West, Idris Elba
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – Lena Headey, Shirley Manson
• Other – Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Without a Trace), David McCallum (NCIS), Santiago Cabrera (Heroes), Ashley Jensen (Ugly Betty), John Oliver (The Daily Show with Jon Stewart), Damian Lewis (Life), Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies), Sophia Myles (Moonlight), Michelle Ryan (Bionic Woman), Zuleikha Robinson (New Amsterdam).

The BBC airs two television networks in the United States, BBC America and BBC World. Also, the BBC and PBS share many collaborations and rebroadcasts, such as Monty Python's Flying Circus, Doctor Who, Nova, and Masterpiece Theatre. The BBC also frequently collaborates with American network HBO, showing American documentaries in the United Kingdom such as Rome, John Adams, Band of Brothers, and The Gathering Storm. The United States Federal Government's tv channel, C-Span, broadcasts Prime Minister's Questions every Sunday.

On some British digital television platforms, it is also possible to watch American channels direct from the United Kingdom, such as Fox News, as well as American channels setup for British audiences such as CNBC Europe, CNN, ESPN Classic, Comedy Central, and FX. The Super Bowl, the NFL's final tournament which occurs every February, has been broadcast in the United Kingdom since 1983 and began airing on Five in 2003.

[edit] Music

American singers such as Madonna, Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, and Britney Spears are popular in the United Kingdom, and British artists such as Natasha Bedingfield, KT Tunstall, Leona Lewis, and Coldplay have achieved 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 are closely associated and identified with the musical scores and soundtracks composed by famous American musicians such as 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, folk.

The birth of jazz, swing, big band, and especially rock n roll, which in itself originated in the United States by famous American entertainers such as Bill Haley, Chuck Berry, and Elvis Presley, had greatly influenced the later development of rock music in the United Kingdom, particularly British bands such as The Beatles and the Rolling Stones, while it's American precursor, the blues, greatly influenced many of the British electric rock.

[edit] See also

• Eight-Nation Alliance
• The Great Rapprochement
• Anglosphere
• UKUSA Community
• Foreign relations of the United Kingdom
• Foreign policy of the United States
• Special Relationship
• Transatlantic relations
• Atlanticism
• American-British

[edit] Bibliography

• Ephraim Douglass Adams; Great Britain and the American Civil War 2 vol 1925
• H. C. Allen; Great Britain and the United States: A History of Anglo-American Relations, 1783-1952 (1954)
• Burt, Alfred L. The United States, Great Britain, and British North America from the Revolution to the Establishment of Peace after the War of 1812. (1940), detailed history by Canadian scholar; online
• Charles S. Campbell, Anglo-American Understanding 1898-1903 (1957)
• John Charmley. Churchill's Grand Alliance: The Anglo-American Special Relationship 1940-57 (1996)
• Martin Crawford. The Anglo-American Crisis of the Mid-Nineteenth Century: The Times and America, 1850-1862 (1987)
• Alan P Dobson. Anglo-American Relations in the Twentieth Century (1995)
• John Dumbrell. A special relationship: Anglo-American relations form the cold war to Iraq (2006)
• Robert M. Hendershot. Family Spats: Perception, Illusion, and Sentimentality in the Anglo-American Special Relationship (2008)
• Jonathan Hollowell; Twentieth-Century Anglo-American Relations (2001)
• Christopher Hitchens. Blood, Class and Empire: The Enduring Anglo-American Relationship (2004)
• Roger Louis; Imperialism at Bay: The United States and the Decolonization of the British Empire, 1941-1945 (1978)* William Roger Louis and Hedley Bull. The "Special Relationship": Anglo-American Relations since 1945 (1987)
• Bradford Perkins; The First Rapprochement: England and the United States, 1795-1805 (1955)
• Edwin J Perkins. Financing Anglo-American trade: The House of Brown, 1800-1880 (1975)
• Shawcross, William. Allies: The U.S., Britain, Europe and the War in Iraq (2004)
• Woods, Randall Bennett. Changing of the Guard: Anglo-American Relations, 1941-1946 (1990)

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Dignan, Don (1971), The Hindu Conspiracy in Anglo-American Relations during World War I.The Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 40, No. 1. (Feb., 1971), pp. 57-76., University of California Press, ISSN 0030-8684.

[edit] External links

• John Bull and Uncle Sam: Four centuries of British American relations (Library of Congress)
• An analysis of the Special Relationship from a British perspective. From the Second World War to the latest global problems facing the United States.
• November 2003, University of Dundee, Lecture: Anti-Americanism and American Exceptionalism
• The hatred of England, by Goldwin Smith (The North American review, Volume 150, Issue 402, May 1890.)

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