After 1782, Great Britain recognised the reality of American independence and focused on agreeing strong trading ties with the new state - much to its own benefit. The EU, sadly, has been unable to make an equivalent psychological adjustment. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/10/17/brussels-has-sabotaged-hope-deal-bizarre-approach-brexit-talks/

Thanks, as always, to all the Twitter experts for informing me, as though it were a brilliantly original insight, that there was a war in 1812. (“LOL, read a book!”) 1/7

Do have a look at the actual Paris negotiations. The Shelburne administration, to the annoyance of its critics, offered the American delegates more than they had imagined possible. 2/7

Not only all the land beyond the Appalachians, including what was then called Illinois County (an area until then considered British), but also free commercial access to British ports, including those in the Caribbean. 3/7

The American delegates – John Adams, John Jay and Benjamin Franklin – couldn’t believe their ears. It was more than they had dared hope for. But it worked. 4/7

Trade between Britain and the US had recovered to pre-war levels within five years and, by the end of the century, it had more than doubled in value. 5/7

Yes, there was then a rather absurd war fought over the status of US ships – a war whose casus belli had been resolved before it started, and whose only major engagement took place after peace had been agreed, but before news of it had crossed the Atlantic. 6/7

But that breakdown, three decades later, does not detract from the essential wisdom of Shelburne’s volte-face, which paved the way for what became the most important alliance of the modern age. 7/7