A Modern Global Power Assumes Its Crown (part 2 Of 2)
A Modern Global Power Assumes Its Crown (part 2 Of 2)
The 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor changed all that as American outrage insisted that the US join the campaign against Hitler and Japan. This time, American troops went over to Europe, suffering plenty of casualties but ultimately helping to win the war. The Americans were seen as liberators by much of Europe, and results of America’s participation in WWII shaped its power for decades to come.
Besides being viewed as a righteous model of governance, America also emerged as the world’s new superpower thanks to all the manufacturing it did for the war. American policy shaped geopolitics immediately, beginning with the new division of Europe and later with ideologies such as Communism.
The Cold War was the next major event for American history, as it struggled for world domination with the Soviet Union. This saw some of modern history’s most terrifying moments like the Bay of Pigs during Kennedy’s presidency as well as some of its most encouraging like the fall of the Berlin Wall. In between, America tried to exert its influence in far away places like Korea and Vietnam.
This ideology of spreading democracy far and wide has continued to this day. Most recently, its adventures into Iraq and Afghanistan have proven that other societies are probably best left to work out their own unique problems in their own ways, in particular, when dealing with hot issues like religion.
Besides spreading democracy, America has also been pivotal at dispersing its culture around the globe. From American products like Coca Cola to Hollywood movies, no other society has shaped the world’s culture as much as the United States. Whether this will turn out to be a good thing or a terror in disguise has yet to be written in the annals of history. But one thing cannot be argued: America is still seen as the model of freedom, prosperity and innovation by much of the developing world.
