Unlikely Allies

Unlikely Allies examines the history of the Anglo-American diplomatic, political, economic and cultural relationship during the long nineteenth century, from the Napoleonic Wars to the First World War. When people speak of the special relationship between the two English-speaking peoples on either s [...]
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Unlikely Allies examines the history of the Anglo-American diplomatic, political, economic and cultural relationship during the long nineteenth century, from the Napoleonic Wars to the First World War. When people speak of the special relationship between the two English-speaking peoples on either side of the Atlantic, they are talking of a phenomenon not much older than Britain's 1904 entente cordial with France. The very term 'English-speaking peoples, ' for example, most probably has no earlier pedigree than William Gladstone in the 1870s. For much of the nineteenth century, Britain and the United States were imperial rivals in the scramble for North America, and their often difficult relationship directly reflected that reality. That these two nations became friends and allies was never a foregone conclusion until surprisingly late in the century and the rapprochement between them was only cemented by the First World War. At the same time, the fact the United States was a former colony and that they therefore shared a common language meant that communication between the two nations differed from that between Britain and its European rivals - something Otto Von Bismarck called the most important fact of the nineteenth century. Starting with the War of 1812, when the United States and Britain found themselves an opposite sides, continuing through prominent and obscure Britons' and Americans' views of each other, the economic and migrant links between the nations, their difficult diplomatic relationship, their later developing friendship and increasing cultural and economic ties and concluding with the First World War, Unlikely Allies describes and analyzes the often turbulent andsurprising relationship between Britain and the United States in the nineteenth century.