The alliance was never very heartfelt. In the First World War, the US would probably have stayed out except for the crucial blunder by the Germans of commencing unrestricted submarine war, interdicting US shipments to the British, which were of course lucrative. In a sense the Gwermans were entrapped, as the were desperate the break the blockade and had foolishly pursued a strategy of trying to rival the Royal Navy, which was a failure.

After the war, many in the US felt they had been manipulated into the war. The divergence of US financial and popular interests is evident here.

In the 1920s and early 30s, the Weimar rulers sought to gain US confidence both as a source of loans, and to counter British/French influence. The Depression made the repayment of US loans very difficult, and Hitler and his banking chancellor, Schacht, unilaterally declared a default on US loans. This set Germany and the US at odds, and united British and US interests to some degree.

Once war broke out, Churchill sought US involvement as a basic strategy. Roosevelt already sympathised because of the Nazi's loan default and oppression of Jews, and the general disgust of individualistic Americans at anachronistic Nazi militarism. Churchill borrowed heavily from the US, after transferring his nation's entire fortune to the US. This made the US dependent on British survival and victory for repayment.

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Anglo-American relations were not close and there were many small disputes e.g. the Trent affair, the Venezuelan dispute, the Canadian-Alaskan border dispute and also the Boer War inflamed American opinion against Britain. In 1900 a proposal that America annex Canada was defeated by only a narrow margin as a Republican policy in the presidential election.

However, at the same time, there was a feeling amongst British politicians that these disputes were misunderstandings from a kindred nation. As the historian A. E. Campbell noted: "There was an assumption of goodwill, and readiness to believe that there must have been some mistake, which is not to be found in British dealings with the European powers" (A. E. Campbell, Anglo-American Understanding, 1898-1903 (The John Hopkins Press, 1957)). The late nineteenth century saw an increase in the imperial spirit and alongside that a belief that America was a fellow Anglo-Saxon country, although by this time English-descended Americans only accounted for one third of America's population. British politicians would speak of "our American cousins" and "the transatlantic branch of our race". Joseph Chamberlain dreamed out loud of the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes waving together in an Anglo-Saxon alliance.

A big influence in shaping the British ruling class' attitude towards America was Lord Bryce's The American Commonwealth. First published in the 1880s and continually updated, Bryce admired American institutions. Another important factor was the marriage of American heiresses to British aristocrats. By the Great War, 130 American women had married into the peerage (Winston Churchill was the fruit of one such union).

Outside of the WASP elements on the East Coast, American opinion, where it was not hostile to Britain (e.g. amongst the Irish and Germans), was indifferent. America entered the Great War as an associated power, not an ally. British illusions of cousinhood were met with a sharp rejoinder from President Wilson at the Paris Peace Conference: "You must not speak of us who come over here as cousins, still less as brothers; we are neither" (Margaret MacMillan, Peacemakers Six Months That Changed the World (John Murray, 2003), p. 29). Wilson also stated that America was willing, and more than able, to outbuild the Royal Navy, although this was settled by the Washington naval treaty of 1922.

British attempts to link their enormous financial debts to America incurred during the War with debts owed to themselves from their previous allies and reparations owed from Germany enraged American opinion, who perceived this as a way for the British to duck out of paying back what they borrowed. Britain by this time was well into economic decline, the War turning Britain from the world's largest creditor nation into a nation heavily in debt. The Great Depression was another hammer blow against the economy. By 1941, Britain could not afford to wage war by itself. It could not survive without borrowing American money and arms. That is what Lend-Lease was about. Churchill, half-American himself and a life-long romantic about the "English-speaking peoples", glossed over this.

In the post-WWII world, the British Labour government applied for an enormous American loan as Britain could not afford by itself to pay for reconstruction. The perceived threat of the Soviet Union during the Cold War also meant that the two countries wanted to maintain a close alliance to counter this.

Long-standing British beliefs of a "special relationship" and financial dependence of Britain to America are what turned the two countries from antagonists to allies.

Recommended:

*R. H. Heindel, The American Impact on Great Britain 1898-1914 (Octagon, 1968).

*Alan Dobson, Anglo-American Relations in the Twentieth Century (Routledge, 1995).

*John Baylis, Anglo-American Relations Since 1939 (Manchester University Press, 1997).