North Atlantic triangle

rdf:langString North Atlantic triangle

rdf:langString Haglund

rdf:langString McCulloch

rdf:langString The North Atlantic triangle is a theoretical construct for studying the history of Canadian foreign policy. First proposed by the historian John Bartlet Brebner, it seeks to explain the importance of United Kingdom–United States relations to Canada's security, and even survival, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The triangle in question was Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. This triangle was invisible to Americans or Britons, for whom Canada was a side issue at best, but it was vital to Canada. Canada was intimately involved with both countries, and needed good relations between them for its own security. The primary concern of Canadian governments was to avoid a repetition of the American invasions of 1775 and 1812–1815, when Canada had been used as the battlefield where American and British differences were settled. Culturally and philosophically, most Canadians of the era (especially the ethnically British majority) identified with Britain and the British Empire and distrusted the United States, but at the same time many Canadians were eager to trade with the large, growing, and nearby market in the United States.