British–American relations , also referred to as Anglo-American relations , encompass many complex relations ranging from two early wars to competition for world markets. Since 1940 they have been close military allies enjoying the Special Relationship built as wartime allies, and NATO partners.
The two nations are bound together by shared history, an overlap in religion and a common language and legal system, and kinship ties that reach back hundreds of years, including kindred, ancestral lines among English Americans , Scottish Americans , Welsh Americans , Scotch-Irish Americans and American Britons respectively. Today large numbers of expatriates live in both countries.
The Special Relationship characterises the exceptionally close political, diplomatic, cultural, economic, military and historical relations between the two countries. It is specially used for relations since 1940. [11]