What made the United States a superpower?

Question

I want to know like history wise when the us realize its potential to become a superpower and when did it rise to name of superpower and how? Thanks

Answer 1

That's a very complicated question. People have written their PhD thesis on this very subject. Books have sought to explain it, and still left complete explanations out.

Basically, it comes down to reasons working together simultaneously after World War 2:

1)Economics: The United States was the first to have its economy recover after WWII. The US made trillions of dollars because of the strength of the Dollar vs. the other world currencies. Furthermore, the US government lent trillions of dollars to rebuild Japan and Europe. This created allies where enemies lived before, and strengthened the alliances that the US had during the war. This is what led to the creation of NATO.

2)Nuclear Weapons: The US and the Soviet Union were the only two nations to have the ability to obliterate an enemy through the use of Nuclear Weapons. When the Soviet Union collapsed, this left the US as the sole power capable of completely annihilating an enemy. The Russian federation that arose after the fall of the Soviet Union still possessed the technologies to do this, but no longer had the finances to maintain such high tech weaponry.

Combining these two sources of strength, the idea of the Superpower was born shortly after the fall of the USSR. That's when the idea of the US as the most powerful nation in the world really began to be discussed on a geo-political level.


Realize that these answers are very simplistic explanations that imply a whole lot more than they actually say. I hope that this helps, however.

Answer 2

The minute the United States became the Shore to Shore "nation" it knew it had the potential - it was the larger in land size and resource reserves then Europe and it wasn't at full capacity!

when did it get the "title" = Cold War. When the Soviet Union and the USA were "head to head" the two were classed as super powers.

The term derives from the notion of a "world power". Essentially at the beginning of WW2 the World Powers were
Japan Britain USSR Germany USA France ....
at the end of he War these nations were still more powerful then most nations on earth however two nations came out of it with unheard of military strength... the USA and USSR. Rather then download the other world powers they invented a new term called super power to make the USA and USSR ffeel Super Special....

Answer 3

I would go with the Spanish American War. The Americans crushing victory over Spain showed them to be a power and the fact that they did it in the Philippians and Cuba showed that they were a world power to be respected. This led to 20 years later when the Americans entered WWI and beat the Germans down. By WWII even England would concede that the USA was a world power, that is why IKE was the overall commander and not Monty.

Answer 4

World War II turned the USA into a superpower, built mostly on its manufacturing strength and ability to supply its own and other armies while being out of reach of German and Japanese forces that might destroy the industries.

Answer 5

Geography and an abundance of natural resources

Answer 6

Red kryptonite.

Answer 7

The Bomb

Answer 8

ww2