Author: Reshma Dutta
The modern United States is unarguably the most powerful nation in human history. This statement can be backed up by asking a few crucial questions.
Which country has the largest economy?
Which country has the best reserve currency?
Which country’s companies have the most impact on the world?
Which country’s films have affected the world the most?
Which country has won the most Nobel Prizes?
Which country has won the most Olympic medals?
Which country has the strongest military power?
The answer to all these questions is… America, America, and America.
Now let’s try to understand the American secret and how the USA became the world’s sole superpower.
To answer this question, we have to go back to the country’s founding — back to when America wasn’t a global power in any sense of the word.
EUROPEAN COLONISATION OF THE AMERICAS
In 1492, an Italian explorer, Christopher Columbus, discovered some Caribbean islands near North America while exploring a sea route to India. This is the first time that Europeans have learned about the continents of the Americas. They discover the people who live on the continents and call them “red Indians.” Soon after, the colonization of the Americas began, with the process of colonization reducing the Native American population by 80% to 90%. This is due to several reasons, the biggest being the diseases the Europeans brought with them, like smallpox and influenza, to which Native Americans had no immunity.
THE DAWN OF A NEW NATION
By the year 1750, European powers had colonized most of the Americas. On the east coast of today’s USA, Great Britain has 13 colonies inhabited by 1.5 million people. To the west of the colonies, the Appalachian Mountains form a natural boundary between the colonies and the French colonies in the Americas. In 1756, the Seven Years’ War broke out between Great Britain and France. Britain prevailed and took hold of the French colonies. To calm an uprising by the Native Americans, the British government quickly carves out an Indian reservation west of the Appalachian Mountains. This does not please the colonists, who want to extend into the territories in the west. In addition, the British government expected its colonies to pay new taxes to repay its debt due to the seven-year war. This further angers the colonists.
In 1774, representatives from 12 of the 13 colonies gathered in Philadelphia to organize the first Continental Congress. They decide to boycott British goods. In 1775, the War of Independence broke out. On July 4, 1776, in the second continental congress, the American revolutionaries proclaimed the independence of the United States of America. This is how the country of the USA was born in 1776.
AMERICAN EXPANSIONISM
The United States of America rapidly extended its area over its first 70 years of existence. Following a sequence of events, Britain was obliged to recognize the independence of the United States in 1783, and it was granted lands up to the Mississippi River.
In 1787, the USA adopted a constitution based on a strict separation of powers between the legislature, the judiciary, and the executive branch. In 1803, France decided to sell the region to the United States, fearing the loss of its Louisiana colony to the UK. The US doubles its territory overnight.
In 1819, Florida was annexed from the Spanish Empire. Texas was annexed in 1845, and California was annexed in 1848 by fighting two wars with Mexico. By now, the country stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In 1867, Russia sold Alaska again to the US, fearing it would lose Alaska to the UK. The USA defeats the declining Spanish empire in a war to acquire Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. The US would annex the Kingdom of Hawaii, Wake Island, and American Samoa in the Pacific in the next two years. In 1903, the US took control of the Panama Canal Zone. It also purchased the American Virgin Islands in 1917. By this time, the US had several far-flung territories and stood as a global power.
WORLD WAR 1
In 1914, World War I began in Europe. This slows down the industry on the continent. The United States takes advantage of this. Despite its neutrality, it sells ammunition, food, and automobiles to the “entente” countries on credit. In retaliation, Germany sinks US merchant ships bound for Britain. In 1917, a German telegram destined for Mexico is intercepted, proposing a military alliance against the United States. This forces the US to enter the war.
The US intervention was a decisive factor in the war’s end and the allied victory. This showed the world just how much America’s influence had grown. The president of the US at that time, Woodrow Wilson, attempted to set the terms for peace and create the League of Nations to promote peace across the world. This attempt to remake global politics showed just how ambitious America’s foreign policy had become. However, the US Congress blocks the US’s bid to join the League of Nations due to several reasons.
THE GREAT DEPRESSION
The globe was rocked by a severe economic slump in 1929, which began with a significant drop in stock values in the United States. The Great Depression was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression in recorded history. In the United States, unemployment has risen to over 23%.
This was the result of the economic entanglement of the world with America. Just as the world was recovering from the great depression, World War II began to rage. Although neutral, the US begins to prepare for war.
WORLD WAR 2
The country sells arms mainly to the UK and the USSR. The rising Japanese empire, which has allied with Nazi Germany, poses a direct threat to the American territories in the Pacific. The US imposes an embargo on steel and oil. In retaliation, Japan launches an attack on Pearl Harbour in Hawaii, causing the US to enter the war.
During the war, the US government funded the Manhattan Project to create a nuclear bomb. The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki forced Japan to surrender. This, along with the surrenders of Italy and Germany, puts an end to this war.
At the end of the war, the United States backed the establishment of the United Nations, whose principal mission is to ensure global peace and security.
BRETTON WOODS AGREEMENT
In 1944, 730 representatives from all 44 allied nations met in New Hampshire to create a worldwide financial system to avert another great depression. The Bretton Woods accord, which would form the backbone of the global financial system, was then signed. It led to the establishment of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
THE COLD WAR
After World War 2, the US and USSR emerge as the two great world powers.
The US had a vision of a free-trading world. So, it saw the Soviet influence of communism as a threat to its interests. It thus creates the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) along with 11 other nations. This is essentially a US guarantee to these European countries that it will protect them from any Soviet aggression.
The US committed to a strategy called “containment,” so named because it was aimed at containing communism everywhere on the globe. It meant the US began intervening in dozens of countries, often secretly. This sometimes meant overthrowing democratically elected governments to install a dictator like in Iran, and other times it meant supplying rebels, who would become terrorist groups, with arms and money like in Afghanistan.
The two countries clashed not only on Earth but also in space. The USSR has successfully placed Sputnik-1, an artificial satellite, in orbit. This caused panic in western nations due to the concern that the satellite may be used for spying. This led to the creation of NASA. The US eventually wins the space race with the Apollo 11 program, which sends two men to the surface of the moon.
THE WORLD’S SOLE SUPERPOWER
In 1991, due to a catastrophic political crisis, the USSR collapsed. This marks the end of the cold war, and the United States emerges as the world’s sole superpower.
With its monolithic economy, dominating armed forces, innovation in technology, and massive pool of talented people queuing for immigration, the United States is expected to hold on to its superpower status at least till the end of the 21st century.
