We begin with the Monroe Doctrine -- where the USA says that ain't nobody in Europe gets to meddle with countries in Central and South America. And if by telling European countries not to meddle we imply that the US may meddle, well that's just the way it is.
OK, so Manifest Destiny took us through most of the 18th Century. The idea was that America was expanding Westwise and that's all there was too it (and incidentally an interpretation of that was that America should export democracy too).
And that kinda explains the Spanish-American War, which knocked Spain out of the Western Hemisphere and dumped a bunch of "territories" into American possession (not including Cuba which the Cubans kept for themselves, as they tend to do.)
So starting at some point after the War of 1812 the USA and the UK defrosted their relationships. Through WWI and (especially) WWII they became such good friends that their relationship was described as "special". And the US never engaged in any hostilities against the UK until 1983.
Uh.
Yes, the United States attacked a Commonwealth Realm in '83. (As I pointed out earlier, I remember the day. I was sitting in Hebrew class as a freshman in college when we heard about it. I thought I was going to get drafted.)
Ronald Reagan had ordered the invasion of Grenada.
I'll say something which seems incendiary, and isn't quite true.
The United States attacked England.
OK, so that didn't really happen. But the US did attack a Commonwealth State. When was the last time we'd done that? 1800-and-something, right?
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