United Kingdom–United States relations

British-American relations

United Kingdom	United States

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and United States President Barack Obama.

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 later becoming friends and allies, the United Kingdom and the United States cemented these deeply rooted links during World War II into what 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, 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 closely carried out between the British Armed Forces and the United States Armed Forces.

Country comparison

	United Kingdom	United States
Population	61,612,300	307,002,000
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 (FY 2009-10)	$711 billion (FY 2009)

History

Origins

The Mayflower transported the Pilgrims to the New World in 1620, as depicted in William Halsall's The Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor, 1882.

See also: British America

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 in the Colony of Virginia, founded in 1607 for King James I of England. The first Africans brought to the American Colonies were sent to Virginia around 1619. These individuals appear to have been treated as indentured servants.

The Pilgrims were a small Protestant sect based in England and the Netherlands. One group in particular 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. William Bradford became the first governor. The Puritans established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629 with 400 settlers who sought to reform the Church of England by creating a new and more pure church in the New World. The Quakers, now known as the Religious Society of Friends, is based on the idea that individuals can have a relationship with the divine. Originating in England, the Quakers were banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony due to hostility held by the Puritans. The Quakers then uprooted and settled in New Jersey. Eventually, William Penn was awarded a royal charter in 1681 by King William III of England for the founding of the Province of Pennsylvania where the Quakers would finally settle.

All of the American Colonies were 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 trade surplus for the American Colonies which in return, benefited the mother country.

American Revolution

John Trumbull's painting depicting The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill, 1775.

Main article: American Revolution

See also: American War of Independence

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. The British Parliament responded to the defiance of the colonists by passing 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. The Declaration of Independence, ratified by the Continental Congress in 1776, and then signed and sent to King George III, was a radical and decisive break for its time.

Although moderately successful in a tactical sense, the long-term strategy of military commanders in the British Army such as Thomas Gage, Sir William Howe, and most notably Lord Cornwallis, failed to defeat the Continental Army and French. The tipping point came in 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, formal recognition by Great Britain of the United States of America as an independent and sovereign nation was finalized in the mutual terms agreed upon 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 again verged on war. This unrest in relations was settled when the United States and Great Britain signed the Jay Treaty in 1794, which established a decade of peace and prosperous trade relations.

War of 1812

Main article: War of 1812

An artist's rendering of the bombardment at the Battle of Baltimore in 1814, which inspired Francis Scott Key to write the lyrics of the Star Spangled Banner, the national anthem of the United States.

After relations were on the verge of war in 1805, the United States imposed several trade embargoes, namely the Embargo Act of 1807, as retaliation for the United Kingdom's suppression of Franco-United States trade during the Napoleonic Wars. The Royal Navy boarded American ships and impressed sailors. Thus, 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 was American anger about British military support for Native Americans defending their tribal lands from encroaching American pioneers. Additionally, the United States wanted territorial expansion northward and westward, underlied by 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; but equally, US attacks northward were decisively repulsed on land.

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.

Consequently, before word could be sent to both American and British military commanders that the war was over, the United Kingdom suffered a defeat and handed the United States, under the command of General Andrew Jackson, a victory at the Battle of New Orleans. Shortly afterwards, the United States suffered a defeat at Fort Bowyer and handed the British, under the command of John Lambert, a victory.

Disputes 1815–1860

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. All slaves in the British Empire were emancipated in 1833, with compensation to the slave owners.

The Monroe Doctrine, 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 British recognition and was thus complied 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, 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.

American Civil War

See also: Britain in the American Civil War

In the American Civil War, the Confederate States of America assumed that the British would prove sympathetic, despite their dim view on slavery. Though the Confederacy's first attempt to provoke British intervention by using an embargo of cotton exports was a failure, the Trent Affair, when a Union 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.

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

After the war, the United Kingdom abided by the arbitration of an international tribunal and paid compensation to the United States for the activities of the CSS Alabama, as part of the Treaty of Washington which was later signed in 1871.

Venezuelan and Border disputes

Uncle Sam embracing John Bull, while Britannia and Columbia hold hands and sit together in the background in The Great Rapprochement.

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 the United Kingdom's favor. Disputes over the Alaska-British North America border were resolved by arbitration in 1903, as a British judge sided with the United States against their northern neighbors, the Canadians, who were outraged to be sacrificed for the benefit of British-American harmony.

The Great Rapprochement

As a term usually attributed to Bradford Perkins, The Great Rapprochement 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. Ever since the American War of Independence, the United States and the British Empire's relationship had been deeply 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 World War I. 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 Sea and the Pacific Ocean, the British were highly desirous of a long-term ally that would prevent an upset in their balance of power, which the German Empire and Russian Empire appeared to seriously threaten.

World War I

After victory in the Spanish-American War in 1898, the United States appeared to have its own rising empire due to its rapid acquisition of numerous overseas colonial possessions— Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and many others; 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 potential 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 loss of trade with Germany and Central Europe.

Woodrow Wilson opted to allow a 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'. Thus, this policy meant that the United States would only supply the Entente powers onwards.

An American doughboy receives an award from King George V.

At the start of the war, the unrestricted activities of German agents against British interests, as well as the United States' 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, 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.

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 Germany 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.

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. Nevertheless, the United States declared war on Germany, joined the Allies, and sent 1.982 million American servicemen under the command of General John J. Pershing to France out of 4.355 million mobilized. Though initially slow at mobilization of the armed 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.

Although President Wilson had wanted to wage war for the sake 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 Germany. Financial reparations were imposed on Germany, despite British reservations and American protests, largely because of France's desire for punitive peace.

Inter-war years

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor on their wedding day.

See also: Abdication Crisis

World War I was theoretically 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. 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 relatively smaller, yet a 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.

During the Great Depression, the United States was preoccupied with its own internal affairs and economic recovery, espousing an isolationist policy which was only sporadically active in foreign affairs throughout the 1920's and 1930's. After the United States imposed a high tariff on foreign imports in 1930, which was called the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the rest of the British Empire unsuccessfully built up imperial trade preferences, thereby attempting to promote trade internally and diverting 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.

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 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 diminished with the independence of the Irish Free State, which was granted much earlier in 1922, and with the successful ambassadorship of Joseph P. Kennedy to the Court of St. James in the late 1930's.

World War II

See also: Lend-Lease

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 and there was widespread opposition of American intervention. However, President Franklin Roosevelt's cash-and-carry policy still allowed the United Kingdom and France to order munitions from the United States.

Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill during church services aboard HMS Prince of Wales.

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, Franklin Roosevelt gave the United Kingdom and later the Soviet Union all aid short of war, including the Destroyers for Bases Agreement which was signed in 1940, and Lend-lease in the form of Sherman tanks, fighter airplanes, ammunition, bullets, food, and medical supplies.

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 1941, two United States Navy destroyers had already been torpedoed on convoy duties in the North Atlantic Ocean. The United States then became heavily involved in the war in Europe. 60,000 British and 73,000 Americans stormed the beaches of Normandy during D-Day, and both nations' armed forces fought alongside each other at the Battle of Monte Cassino, Operation Market Garden, the invasion of Sicily, the Battle of the Bulge, and many others. It was during this period of extremely close cooperation that the Special Relationship was created and conceptualized.

Millions of American servicemen were based in England 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 both the United States and the United Kingdom, headed by an American named Robert Oppenheimer, worked on the Manhattan Project in total secrecy, which eventually achieved the objective of building an atomic bomb before Nazi Germany could obtain and use such a weapon.

Cold War

See also: Anglo-American loan

See also: Polaris Sales Agreement

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 Empire went into relative 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 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 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, under Joseph Stalin. 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 within NATO.

As the British Empire was slowly being dismantled throughout the world, the United States became one of the world's two superpowers, the other being the Soviet Union, while the United Kingdom became the most important ally of 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 their own development of a nuclear arsenal.

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.

The United States had become the indisputable leading Western power and pursued a mixed anti-colonial and anti-communist policy, demanding that the United Kingdom and France end their invasion of Egypt in 1956 during the Suez Crisis, 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 President Dwight Eisenhower led to an immediate British and French withdrawal of their military occupation as well as the immediate resignation of Prime Minister Anthony Eden.

The United States became involved in the Vietnam War in the early 1960's, 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.

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.

Ronald Reagan with close ally and personal friend, Margaret Thatcher at Aspen Lodge, Camp David, 1986.

Throughout the 1980's, Margaret Thatcher was strongly supportive of Ronald Reagan's unwavering stance towards the Soviet Union. During the Soviet war in Afghanistan, the United States and the United Kingdom 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.

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 resentful British Government.

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 was 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. 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. First Lady 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.

War on Terrorism and Iraq War

Tony Blair and George W. Bush shake hands after their press conference in the East Room of the White House on November 12, 2004.

Main article: War on Terrorism

Main article: Iraq War

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 for bringing the terrorist group known as al-Qaeda and the Taliban to justice.

With permission by Queen Elizabeth II, the Star Spangled Banner 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 Kingdom, 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, British support among the public for the Iraq war had plummeted. Despite Prime Minister 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."

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.

Present status

Queen Elizabeth II greets First Lady Michelle Obama at Buckingham Palace on April 1, 2009 as President Barack Obama looks on.

.

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, Prime Minister 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 the 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, 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, the fondness between the United States' First Family and the British Royal Family was illustrated by a breach of protocol between Queen Elizabeth II and 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 1, 2009, which was in conjunction with the London G20 summit. 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.

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.

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.

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. In 2008, 3.6 million Americans traveled to the United Kingdom for leisure and recreational purposes, spending a total of $4.4 billion (£2.7 billion).

Transportation

New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport is the most popular 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 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 and New York City.

State and Official Visits

See also: United States presidential visits to United Kingdom

Reciprocal state and official visits have been carried out over the years by three Presidents of the United States as well as two British monarchs. Throughout her 56-year reign, Queen Elizabeth II has met and dined with a total of 10 presidents who have traveled to the United Kingdom for either a state, official, or working visit (Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr., and Obama), with the notable exception of Lyndon Johnson.

File:HMHE2Rwhgov.jpg.jpg

Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom reviews a honor guard during a State Arrival Ceremony held on the South Lawn at the White House on May 7, 2007.

State and Official Visits to the United States by the British Monarch

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 two day state visit to Washington D.C., 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	Jamestown and Williamsburg (Virginia), Washington D.C., and New York City	Attended official ceremonies for the 350th anniversary of the Jamestown Settlement, paid a state visit to Washington D.C., 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, New York City, Charlottesville (Virginia), Newport and Providence (Rhode Island), and Boston	Toured the U.S. east coast aboard HMY Britannia in conjunction with the U.S. Bicentennial celebrations and paid a state visit to Washington D.C.
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 U.S. west coast aboard HMY Britannia, and made a private visit to Ronald Reagan's retreat in the Santa Ynez Mountains called Rancho del Cielo.
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 Meeting of the United States Congress, made a private visit to Kentucky, and toured the Southern 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.	Addressed the Virginia General Assembly, attended the official ceremonies for the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown Settlement, made a private visit to Kentucky, attended the Kentucky Derby, and paid a state visit to Washington D.C.

State and Official Visits to the United Kingdom by the President of the United States

Dates	Administration	Locations	Itinerary
December 26-28, 1918	President Woodrow Wilson and First Lady Edith Wilson	London, Carlisle, and Manchester	Paid a two-day official visit to the United Kingdom and had an audience and attended a formal dinner at Buckingham Palace with King George V and Queen Mary.
June 7-9, 1982	President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan	London and Windsor	Paid a two-day official visit to the United Kingdom, stayed at Windsor Castle, attended a state banquet, and addressed the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
November 18-21, 2003	President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush	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 in Westminster Abbey, and made a private visit to Prime Minister Tony Blair's constituency in the north of England.

Diplomacy

See also: United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom

See also: List of Ambassadors from the United Kingdom to the United States

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)

Common memberships

The United States and the United Kingdom are both founders 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.

• British-American Project
• Food and Agriculture Organization
• G8
• G10
• G20
• International Atomic Energy Agency
• International Chamber of Commerce
• International Court of Justice
• International Monetary Fund
• International Olympic Committee
• International Telecommunication Union
• Interpol
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization
• Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
• Pilgrims Society
• UKUSA Community
• UNESCO
• United Nations
• United Nations Security Council
• World Bank
• World Health Organization
• World Trade Organization

Strategic Alliance Cyber Crime Working Group

Map showing member countries of the Strategic Alliance Cyber Crime Working Group and their respective lead agencies.

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.

UKUSA Community

Template:UKUSA The UK-USA Security Agreement is an alliance of five English-speaking countries in the Anglosphere-- Australia, New Zealand, Canada, 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 Agreement 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.

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

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 people of the United Kingdom and the United States 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, drafted in 1787 and ratified the following year by the Founding Fathers of the United States, was influenced by the Magna Carta which was issued to King John of England in 1215.

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.

Because of shared history, the United Kingdom has also had a direct influence on the traditional holidays in which Americans celebrate every year. Thanksgiving Day, a federal holiday celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday of every November, is a traditional gathering of family and friends in remembrance of the Pilgrims, 17th-century Separatists from England who sailed 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 having good relations with the mother country, Great Britain.

Perhaps one of the most endearing and moving symbols of ties between the United Kingdom and the United States is the story of how the American National Anthem came into existence. As British forces bombarded Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore, albeit unsuccessfully on the evening of September 13, 1814, Francis Scott Key while detained aboard HMS Minden, penned words about the battle which he witnessed on a firsthand account to a poem entitled, The Defence of Fort McHenry. In later years, the poem was adapted to the melody of the English drinking song, The Anacreontic Song by Englishman John Stafford Smith.

Popular Culture

Literature

Literature is transferred across the Atlantic Ocean, as evidenced by, the appeal of British authors such as William Shakespeare, J. R. R. Tolkien, and J.K. Rowling in the United States, and American authors such as John Steinbeck, 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.

Print Journalism

British Sunday broadsheet newspaper The Observer includes a condensed copy of The New York Times.

Film

File:Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe in The Prince and the Showgirl trailer 2.jpg

In The Prince and the Showgirl (1957), British actor Sir Laurence Olivier starred alongside American icon, Marilyn Monroe.

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 nations, whether it be a concentrated use of British and American actors or use of film studios from both nations.

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.

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 are The Office, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Steptoe and Son (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 television shows re-created in the United Kingdom are The Apprentice and The Price Is Right. Popular American television 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
• Others include – 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 recent American mini-series 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 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 NFL's final tournament which occurs every February, has been broadcast in the United Kingdom since 1983 and began airing on Five in 2003.

Music

See also: British Invasion

See also: Anglo-American music

American singers such as Madonna, Tina Turner, Cher, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, and Britney Spears are popular in the United Kingdom, and British artists such as The Beatles, Sting, David Bowie, Amy Winehouse, 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 created by famous American composers such as 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 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 rock bands such as The Beatles and the Rolling Stones, while it's American precursor, the blues, greatly influenced British electric rock.

Gallery

• 
  King George VI and Queen Elizabeth with Eleanor Roosevelt in London, 1942.
• 
  Anthony Eden greets Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Quebec Conference as Eleanor Roosevelt and Sir Winston Churchill look on, 1943.
• 
  Eleanor Roosevelt, Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, and Clementine Churchill at the Second Quebec Conference, 1944.
• 
  General Dwight D. Eisenhower with Sir Winston Churchill and Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery at a NATO meeting, 1951.
• 
  Richard and Patricia Nixon with Harold and Mary Wilson on the South Lawn at the White House, 1970.
• 
  Queen Elizabeth II and Patricia Nixon, 1970.
• 
  Richard Nixon with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, 1970.
• 
  Gerald and Betty Ford dining with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh at the White House, 1976.
• Ronald Reagan addressing the British Parliament, 1982.
  Ronald Reagan addressing the British Parliament, 1982.
• 
  Ronald and Nancy Reagan with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh at Rancho de Cielo, 1983.
• 
  John Travolta dancing with Diana, Princess of Wales at the White House, 1985.
• 
  Margaret Thatcher seen walking with Ronald Reagan at Camp David, 1986.
• 
  Ronald And Nancy Reagan with Margaret and Dennis Thatcher at the beginning of an official dinner at the White House, 1988.
• 
  George H.W. Bush and John Major conducting a press conference at Camp David, 1992.
• 
  Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and George W. Bush in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace before a review of Foot Guards of the Household Division, 2003.
• 
  Gordon Brown and George W. Bush have their first meeting at Camp David, 2007.
• 
  Tony Blair is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W. Bush, 2009.

See also

• Foreign relations of the United Kingdom
• Foreign policy of the United States
• Special Relationship
• Transatlantic relations

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)

References

• Template:Harvard reference.

External links

• 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