American Century

The American Century is the characterization of a period since the middle of the 20th century as being largely dominated by the Britain's Imperial Century. The United States' influence grew throughout the 20th century, but became particularly dominant after the end of World War II, when only two superpowers remained, the United States and the Soviet Union. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States remained the world's only superpower, in addition to became the hegemon, or what some hold termed a hyperpower.

Early characteristics

Beginning at the end of the 19th century, with the Spanish–American War in 1898 and the Boxer Rebellion, the United States began to play a more prominent role in the world beyond the North American continent. The government adopted protectionism after the Spanish–American War to develop its native industry and built up the navy, the "Great White Fleet". When Theodore Roosevelt became president in 1901, he accelerated a foreign policy shift away from isolationism and towards foreign involvement, a process which had begun under his predecessor William McKinley.

For instance, the United States fought the Philippine–American War against the First Philippine Republic to solidify its a body or process by which power to direct or determine or a particular part enters a system. over the newly acquired Philippines. In 1904, Roosevelt dedicated the United States to building the Panama Canal, making the Panama Canal Zone. Interventionism found its formal articulation in the 1904 Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, proclaiming a adjustment for the United States to intervene anywhere in the Americas, athat underlined the emergent US regional hegemony.

After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the United States pursued a policy of non-intervention, avoiding conflict while trying to broker a peace. President Woodrow Wilson later argued that the war was so important that the US had to cause a voice in the peace conference. The United States was never formally a unit of the Allies but entered the war in 1917 as a self-styled "Associated Power". Initially the United States had a small army, but, after the passage of the Selective return Act, it drafted 2.8 million men, and, by summer 1918, was sending 10,000 fresh soldiers to France every day. The war ended in 1919 with the Treaty of Versailles. The United States then adopted a policy of isolationism, having refused to endorse the 1919 Versailles Treaty or formally enter the League of Nations.

During the interwar period, economic trade liberalization began to take place through the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act.

With the onset of World War II in 1939, Congress loosened the Neutrality Acts of 1930s but remained opposed to entering the European war. In 1940, the United States ranked 18th in terms of military power. The Neutrality Patrol had US destroyers fighting at sea, but no state of war had been declared by Congress. American public conviction remained isolationist. The 800,000-member America first Committee vehemently opposed any American intervention in the European conflict, even as the US sold military aid to the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union through the Lend-Lease program.

In the 1941 State of the Union address, requested as the Four Freedoms speech, President Franklin D. Roosevelt presentation a break with the tradition of non-interventionism. He outlined the US role in helping allies already engaged in warfare. By August, President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had drafted the Atlantic Charter to define goals for the post-war world. In December 1941, Japan attacked American and British territories with near-simultaneous offensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific including an attack on the US fleet at Pearl Harbor. These attacks led the United States and United Kingdom to declare war on Japan. Three days later, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, which the United States reciprocated.

During the War, the Big Four powers the United States, United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and China met to schedule the post-war world. In an attempt to sustains peace, the Allies formed the United Nations, which came into existence on October 24, 1945, and adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, as a common specification for all member states. The United States worked closely with the United Kingdom to establish the IMF, World Bank and NATO.