2007-07-04 06:25:22 · 7 answers · asked by BeachBum 3 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
America was the first colony to ever successfully rebel against a European power. That set a huge prescedent for the rest of the world to follow; that the conquering nations of Europe, who were dividing the world up like slices of a pie, can be beaten back. America gave legitimacy to the idea of a popular uprising as a way of attaining freedom.
America is also the primary reason that Europe isn't a Soviet Union satellite nation right now. Even if the Europeaners somehow survived the Nazi onslaught, Stalin probably would have picked right back up where Hitler left off, gradually biting off chunks of the free world until it is all his.
America has given the world the idea of freedom, at any cost.
2007-07-04 06:47:02 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 2⤋
Well, we've been busy. "Western civilization" is pretty wide open. I'd suggest the following as uniquely US (as opposed to American, which would include, say Uruguay and Nunavut) contributions:
television (Marconi, San Francisco)
jazz
formal legal equality of all citizens regardless of racesexcreedsexualorientationorphysicaldisability
the ice cream sundae (don't mock this - it's one of my favorites)
the silicon chip based personal computer
telemarketing
the military industrial complex
internal combustion and interstate highways
a system of government designed to be abolished should the people tire of it (in other words, the enactment of Locke's social compact, not just the idea, which the English Locke shared with the French Rousseau in many aspects)
corn flakes
the mechanized assembly line and industrial standardization (Whitney plus Ford, minus Babbage)
Ms. Pac-Man (honestly, who else could have?)
2007-07-05 00:55:16 · answer #2 · answered by umlando 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Jazz is 100% American made as well as the light bulb, heavyer than air airplane. Microsoft. Just to name a few.
2007-07-04 14:30:26 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
there is not at all Americas contributions to Western Civilisation...
2007-07-08 10:11:58 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Jazz
The cheeseburger
one hell of a lot of physics, chemistry, and engineering
the adult phase of Science Fiction
A deep sense of entitlement and the feeling that we are immune from nature
2007-07-04 13:35:33 · answer #5 · answered by oldhippypaul 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Bad spelling , judging by the usual standard of questions and answers on this site.
2007-07-05 00:26:44 · answer #6 · answered by brainstorm 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
The A bomb? or the H bomb?
2007-07-04 13:31:19 · answer #7 · answered by LodiTX 6 · 0⤊ 3⤋