How to understand the relationship between the United States and Western Europe

A ?The relationship between the United States and Western Europe from a historical perspective

1. Changes in the relationship between the United States and Western Europe:

(1) The influence of Western Europe on the United States from the 17th to the 19th century :

1. The colonial expansion of Western Europe in the United States

2. European immigrants promoted the formation of the American nation

3. European Enlightenment ideas influenced the American Revolution (" "Declaration of Independence" and "Constitution of 1787")

4. The U.S. economy is supported by European capital, technology and labor force ⑤The United States followed the British in invading China

(2) From the end of the 19th century to World War II The United States gradually deprived Western Europe of its hegemony:

1. At the end of the 19th century, the United States' industrial output ranked first in the world. After World War I, the United States replaced Britain as the world's economic hegemony

2. The Washington Conference after World War I The United States achieved the same sea control as Britain.

3. In the 1930s, the United States pursued a "neutrality" policy and condoned the German and Italian fascists' invasion of the Soviet Union. During World War II, the United States formed an alliance with Western European powers to jointly oppose fascist aggression.

4. After World War II, the United States controlled Western Europe politically, economically, and militarily through the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, and NATO.

(3) Western Europe opposed the control of the United States after the 1970s:

1. Western Europe established the European Union to compete with the United States economically, and promoted a more independent political system Foreign policy has shaken the hegemony of the United States.

2. Since the 1990s, the strategic partnership between the United States and Western Europe has been strengthened, and the trend of economic globalization and regionalization has been obvious.

2. The relationship between the United States and major Western European countries has gone through three stages. Its basic characteristics and reasons.

1. After World War I, the United States became the economic hegemon of the capitalist world. Politically, Europe remains the center of the capitalist world. During World War I, the United States took advantage of its neutral status to make a fortune. The economic revival of European countries provided the United States with favorable overseas markets, so the "Coolidge Boom" appeared in the United States. Britain's post-war economic development was slow, and national liberation movements broke out in many colonies. But politically, the United States is still unable to compete with European powers such as Britain and France, and it cannot play a leading role in the political life of the capitalist world. Britain and France manipulated the League of Nations and established a new international structure that was beneficial to them.

2. After World War II, the United States became the hegemon of the capitalist world. Economically, the United States' economic hegemony has been further strengthened, and it has established its leadership in world finance through the Bretton Woods system, thereby controlling the economic lifeline of the capitalist world; politically, the United States has led Western Europe in establishing "NATO" and once manipulated United Nations. This is mainly because the European capitalist powers were severely weakened in World War II, while the United States made a fortune and possesses the most powerful military power in the world. ?

3. Since the 1960s and 1970s, the tripartite position of the United States, Western Europe, and Japan has taken shape in the capitalist world. After World War II, after rapid development in the 1950s and 1960s, the economic strength of Western European countries and Japan grew. The establishment of the European Union has greatly enhanced the economic and political strength of Western European countries and increased their influence in world affairs. At the same time, the economic strength of the United States declined relatively, and in 1973, the Bretton Woods system collapsed completely. European countries and Japan have launched fierce competition with the United States in the economic field. They have also begun to actively get rid of the control of the United States on the international political stage and pursue relatively independent policies. The United States has lost its absolute advantage in dominating the capitalist world.

Of course, after the end of the Cold War, the relationship between the United States and Western Europe has undergone new changes, but it can only be said that it is still in a process of quantitative change. Compared with before the Cold War, there is no fundamental change. The hegemony of the US dollar. The United States' global military hegemony remains unchanged, and its relations with Western Europe have not changed qualitatively. From a historical perspective, it cannot be said to be a new stage.