An Atlantic triangle in the 1900s: Theodore Roosevelt's ‘special relationships’ with France and Britain

Abstract

This article aims at highlighting two ‘special’ transatlantic relationships whose cultivation resulted from Theodore Roosevelt's personal diplomacy. One of them was between America and Britain – the celebrated ‘special relationship’ par excellence – and the other – the lesser-known one – was between America and France. The latter bilateral rapport was by far the most satisfying one for Roosevelt as the outcome of personal ties; it rested on a fascinating character, France's ambassador to Washington, Jean Jules Jusserand, who assisted America's 26th president on both sides of the Atlantic through his contacts in France and Britain. Transatlantica, which would owe a lot to Roosevelt's cosmopolitanism, was then in the making, paradoxically marked in its incipient stage by Anglo-American bickering over the Alaska boundary and US honeymooning with the French. The Gallic factor, thanks to Jusserand, would bring about diplomatic cooperation and harmony between America and France throughout Roosevelt's major fore...