How did the US come to dominate the Western hemisphere?

Question

How did America come to dominate the Earth, or at least the Western hemisphere

Answer 1

It wasn't hard. the only competition could have come from large countries--Mexico, Brazil, Argentina or Bolivia; all the others are short on population. When the United States became a military power, Mexico was just coming out of a dictatorship over it, Brazil wasn't half as populous as it is now. Argentina has always had a government that couldn't handle economics; and Bolivia was busy arguing with its neighbors, having just escaped the clutches of Spain.
Some extremists in this country wanted to "take over" Central American or even South American countries since they were militarily weak and governmentally under mediocre dictators. Fortunately, we left them alone and stayed out of their politics most of the time. In applying the Monroe Doctrine--James Monroe's idea--we used our power to try to keep foreign influences out of the western hemisphere most of the time.

Answer 2

It began when the Colonists fought & won their own independence from England. The american colonists were considered too small to be able to defeat the great English empire. The United States grew, as people migrated west to obtain their own land and seek ther own prosperty. California & Texas once belonged to Mexico, but both decided to become a part of the U.S., rather than be on their own, or a part of Mexico; this strengthened the status of the U.S. in the western hemisphere.

Answer 3

Britian was crippled by fighting two world wars and gave rather a lot of its wealth to the US to purchase arms (Lend-lease). The US is rich in natural resources and was one of the few countries to still be solvent at the end of the war. It also grew prosperous on slave labour and the exploitation of the indigenous peoples. It also benefitted from the brain drain from central Europe from nazi dominated Germany and other countries. In the modern era it is in the forefront of the IT revolution which is more relevant than industry - witness the present global financial meltdown. The fact that it goes poking about in other countries affairs and pursuing rather a disastrous foreign policy is one of the reasons that there is resentment of the US in some parts of the world (not least its relationship with Israel) which gave us the shocking scenes of the destruction of the WTC.

Answer 4

Diseases such as measles, chicken pox, typhus, typhoid fever, dysentery, scarlet fever, diphtheria, small pox and cholera were unknown in the Western Hemisphere until of the arrival of the whites from Europe. It is estimated that up to75% of the American Indian population was wiped out by these diseases for which they had no natural immunity. Once the whites were in the majority, it was easy for them to kill or suppress the remaining tribes.

Answer 5

Colonialism and once free peoples with intent to be all that man can be ,unfortunately we are excessively warlike,it has always taken war and aggression for a nation to rise,and fall( Trojans Greeks,Romans Egyptians)We also have a Celtic,Norman English Frankish Gaelic background.We are fierce,and will dominate for a long time.

Answer 6

After the Second World War, the US became a superpower and the accepted big brother and defencder of the free world.

Your succesions of Presidents just worked harder to reinforce that into bullying the world now.

Answer 7

simply put the US had/has the biggest poplation,industrial capicity, army and a belief its its destiny to become a great power.and after WW2 only it and the soviet union came out better then they went in.after WW2 it was the only country that could match the USSR so it lead the west against it

Answer 8

By stealing and swindling land and resources from native people with inferior technology.