Why has the United States emerged as the worlds leading superpower?

by Padawanbater

Hit me with everything

pmaj82

Ok... Assuming you want to start at say the 1800.

From a geographical standpoint

  1. Its Isolated. No major European, African, or Asian powers to hinder its growth.

  2. Its Rich. Very very very very very rich.

    1. You have Silver(Still in the top ten producers to this day).
    2. Fur Trade. Hugely profitable. Might have heard of John Jacob Astor. He made his money doing that.

  3. Gold. California and Alaska are the biggies but there where others.

  4. Lumber. An Entire continents worth of lumber untouched comparatively to Europe.

  5. And the biggest thing especially towards pushing the US over the top was Oil. Texas, California, hell even parts of Ohio. The US had a near monopoly on oil production and extraction form the 1800's all the way to WW2.

6. And lets not forget cotton and all that comes with it.
  1. It's climate was comparable to Europe. You did not have to brave the Jungles/tropics of Latin America or the Deserts/Savannah's or Africa.
  2. It was sparsely (Comparatively) populated. Thanks to European diseases brought over by the first settlers, The native population was obliterated. Estimates of Native American deaths to those diseases go as high as 90% of the indigenous population.

From a political/social standpoint ( Note some of this will play off of Geography).

  1. It had an expansionist policy pertaining to the continent. Through purchases and force it secured its borders from the remnants of European colonial holdings. Louisiana Purchase, Gadsden Purchase, Alaskan Purchase, and the War with Mexico for a few examples.
  2. It did not form any Alliances with European powers there by keeping it out of wars.
  3. It grew from immigration instead of just natural births. Crisis's in Europe also led to large numbers like the Potato Famine in Ireland. From 1820 to 1940 32 MILLION Europeans came to the US. 6 million Germans, over 4 million Irish, almost 5 million Italians, 4 million English, over 3 million Russian and add 6 million more from the rest of the world.
  4. By being a the "child" of Britain which was one of the if not the world super power it had its advantages. It was developed and had a wide range of exports so it was not a "banana republic". Britain also enforced the Monroe Doctrine when the US did not have the capability to do so.

That is a brief overview. I'm sure I missed somethings!

For the pop stats.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0201398.html