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With Europe but Not of It: Difference between revisions
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Hostility between nations can probably be traced back to the Spanish Armada and the colonising of the Americas and such things eventually led to the popularity of somewhat "Spanish" villains in Renaissance fiction (notably in Shakespeare's "Othello"; Iago being named for the country's patron saint). For a long time Spain represented a Catholic Europe that Britain (specifically Protestant England; the Highland Scots didn't mind them so much) had been firmly sceptical of.
Modern relations with Spain are fairly pleasant. Like with France, many Brits will have holiday homes in the country and enjoy the culture. In fact, it is common to see characters in British television talk of clubbing in Ibiza or [[London Gangster|big bad crime lords]] going to Spain to disappear for a while (although there is now an extradition treaty with Spain, it is not retroactive).
There is of course, [[Monkeys Lions and Annoyed Spaniards|that little bit of the UK]] just south of Spain as well however, which has caused much dispute.
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Over a million Brits visit Amsterdam every year. Note that they rarely want to visit ''the Netherlands''; [[Just Here for Godzilla|it's just that Amsterdam happens to be in the country]]. [[Freestate Amsterdam|Given the cheap and easy access in the city to virtually any sexual fetish (prostitution is a legal and, for the most part, well regulated business complete with its own union), the plentiful bars and clubs where one can buy an astonishing variety of legal soft-drugs such as cannabis and mushrooms]], and the fact that Amsterdam has had a thriving underground music scene for decades, it is perhaps unsurprising that it's a common weekend trip for many of them.
Some Brits also visit the rest of the country, but they are in such a minority as to be not worth mentioning.
'''The European Union'''
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'''Special Relationship: The Colonials - Americans'''
While the UK-US relationship was one of mutual animosity and resentment up until [[World War One|the World Wars]], due to [[The American Revolution|a number of]] [[The War of 1812|historical disagreements]]. [[wikipedia:Jay Treaty|The Jay Treaty]], ending the revolutionary war, sums up US-UK relations pre-WWI nicely. Basically it comes down to not being worth the money for either side to start up another war for very long. Since the war, Britain and the USA have since been fairly close allies, sharing military technology and intelligence, often banding together politically against the rest of Europe, especially France (which is amusing when one considers that the exact opposite was true in earlier times, with the USA and France acting as mutual allies against English interests).
The relationship can occasionally be strained, particularly when an American utters the [[Stock Phrase]] "We saved your asses in World War Two" (the civil response is usually something along the lines of "When you ''finally'' got round to it..."). It's not as hostile as Hollywood would like you to believe, though; it's not like the UK's still fighting the Revolution against the traitors.
The United Kingdom was, and still is, a valuable power projection place for the United States, considering it "an unsinkable aircraft carrier" (''The Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier'' was the name of a 1984 investigative work into US bases in the UK). This is probably the reason why Britain is called Airstrip One in ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]''. Europeans sometimes accuse Britain of being America's lapdog, a feeling that many Brits share - especially with regard to the Iraq war, which many accuse Britain of entering just to keep on America's good side.
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