Was America strong before World War II?

Even before the Second World War, the United States was still strong, but it was not so strong after that. After all, at that time, the world's recognized boss was Britain. Relying on its vast colonies, Britain is still the world's largest power even if it is weak. Although this colonial empire, which lasted for hundreds of years, was weakened by World War I, it has never established the fighting capacity of war. However, this weakening has not led to the collapse of the empire, and Britain is still encouraging to maintain its position in the world.

At that time, the United States also handled the pressure and challenges with Britain very carefully.

It must be said that the rise of the United States and its becoming the world's number one power almost coincided with the decline of Britain.

Originally, I would fall into Thucydides Trap, but at that time, the contradiction in the world was particularly obvious and serious. In terms of international security, especially in dealing with war, the United States and Britain share the same national interests, especially the World War II forced Britain and the United States to join hands. This is also one of the reasons why Britain and the United States broke through Thucydides Trap to realize the safe transformation of international status. At the same time, we have to admit that the United States did rise in a relatively good era.

The rise of the United States has its own reasons. First of all, the United States is located in a favorable position in the north of America, surrounded by the sea, and there are no rivals around that can pose challenges.

The United States is far away from almost all battlefields in its own territory, which makes it difficult for the United States to be affected by other wars or world wars. This relatively neutral geographical position makes the United States closely related to its allies and allies, and its democratic system makes it difficult for the political level of the United States to control the actions of its economic interest groups. Therefore, after the war broke out, major American manufacturers sold weapons and materials on a large scale. Use war to make a fortune.

Of course, on the one hand, this wealth enters the hands of the United States through taxes, on the other hand, it is the profit of arms dealers. But more is the high salary that people exchange for the means of production and living.

During the two world wars, the arms trade in the United States was indeed criticized, but what really made American society and the American people rich was not the trade in military weapons, but the production of war preparation materials, which required a large number of labor. Including food, clothing, medicine and so on. These enterprises employ a large number of American working people to produce these materials. When the war broke out on the other side of the ocean, American political circles, economic circles and ordinary people down to society benefited a lot from the war, which was also the main reason why American purchasing power became the first in the world after the war.

The second aspect is that the United States is an immigrant country. Immigrants not only bring huge labor resources to the United States, but also have a rich talent pool, which is the most critical guarantee for the rapid rise of the United States in just over a hundred years. This was unmatched by Britain at that time, especially during the world war, when the United States spared no effort to search for scientists persecuted by European countries. Even after the defeat of Nazi Germany, we tried our best to keep scientists in Nazi Germany, help them get rid of crimes and give them American green cards.

Of course, the United States is not the only country that rises like the United States at the same time. In addition to the United States, there are colonies with vast territory, which still carry out bourgeois revolution and also send war preparations to western countries. But it is difficult for these countries to become world powers. The difference between the two is the true strength of the United States itself.

First, the United States is rich in land resources, which can develop rapidly and fully provide its material security.

Second, the United States has a wide range of land suitable for agricultural cultivation, which can ensure its own food security and can also be exported.

At the same time, light industry based on agriculture in the United States also developed rapidly at that time.

On this basis, we will vigorously develop heavy industry and national defense industry.

This is another time for the United States to become a powerful country with war potential from economic self-sufficiency At that time, the industrial base of the United States was the most comprehensive in the world, which was also the leading factor that distinguished the United States from other colonies and countries with similar economic development levels at the same time, and then became the world's number one.

Of course, the United States became the world's number one, and it did not happen overnight. When it rose and expanded, it not only competed for Indian land by westward movement, but also annexed neighboring land by war through buying and selling. After the mainland basically expanded, it began to participate in the competition of world colonies. Unlike Britain and Russia, the United States either colonized a large area of land or directly incorporated it into its own territory. The United States took the lead in waging war against some weak colonial countries and won some of their strategic locations. The strategic goal is to build a maritime military power and a maritime economic power as the main goal.

This is not just colonization. This led the United States to lead a new colonial trend at that time, and also ushered in colonies and semi-colonies in areas occupied by traditional western countries at that time, hoping to be friends with the United States. The United States put forward a more comprehensive colonial plan, and the well-known open door and equal opportunity were also American diplomatic strategies launched during this period. At that time, the old colonial countries, due to inertia thinking, could not actively respond to the world colonial situation, and the contradiction with the colonies became more and more serious. Conflicts with other countries' colonization and world division have also broken out many times. More importantly, Europe experienced two world wars and weakened itself.

No big country can shake America's world strategy at this time. At this time, the United States was not complacent, but quickly paid for it, tying the politics, economy and military affairs of Europe, Japan and other countries with itself, and laid its own world status in one fell swoop. From a powerful country to a superpower.

American (27) British (35) Colony (1)