where was the u.s.a as a super power right before ww2?

Question

where was the u.s.a as a super power right before ww2?

Answer 1

America wasn't really seen as a world superpower before World War II. We were really isolationist.



Most of the fighting (except Pearl Harbor) took place in Europe. The war helped America get out of the Great Depression.

Answer 2

Do you have the time for all this. out of your earliest dateline China had large effect over a brilliant section and nonetheless does. yet maximum folk will think of of the powers that rose out of Europe. Greek effect replace into replaced by ability of the Romans. Rome's effect prolonged west into Britain, maximum of at present's Europe, east into the midsection East, south to north Africa. Rome cut up into 2 empires, which persevered fade decrease back as tribes like the Vandals persevered attack it borders. Europe had little effect for the subsequent millennium. With the autumn of Rome, the Arabs effect replace into far achieving into Africa, center East, Asia or perhaps into the Pacific Isles. Their attain could properly be considered in how many countries have Islam as there best faith contained in the people the Incas and Aztecs had huge empires. With those empires got here the custom, arts, shape, religions, values. If those communities are superpowers or no longer, i do no longer understand. Their effect replace into from conquests usa's upward push right into a superpower status, wasn't achieved in conquest. Our effect as a superpower isn't in basic terms militia, yet economic, drugs, technologies, GNP, etc. The term superpower replace into first coined for the U. S. while it took the coverage of shelter weaker countries from the communism and rouge pals. a lot of this replace into in they call distant places help, which has a larger effect than any military. it is short version.

Answer 3

The US was not yet seen a super power but many nations knew the US was growing more powerful very quickly and would become a future global power.



Kinda like what we see China right now. Its not currently a superpower but somewhere in the future many see China as a rising power.

Answer 4

After President Theodore's Roosevelt's presidency, america emerged as a world superpower.



This is why they were capable of being massive support towards WWI. When WWII begun for the United States, the American War machines produced more weapons and armor than every faction, they produced twice as faster than Germany and they produced 4 times faster than Japan.



Japan was cautious to make sure America's navy was crippled during their bombing in Pearl harbor. Only to have them declare war on Japan after failure.

Answer 5

In the 30's our army was ranked 17th in the world, we had a few small out of date tanks, few trucks etc. Our NAVY was I believe, 37th behind Romania! (which I think is a landlocked country) Being in the military was considered a dead end job. Pay was very low and you could be a corporal for 20 years!



But we had one BIG advantage a huge industrial base. And after Pearl Harbour we went to wartime production. No cars, referegers,stoves, washing machines,radios. There was no home, store,hospital, school etc construction. Detroit was building tanks and trucks 24/7. Singer Sewing Machine was retooled and was making .45 pistols. Machine guns were made by car part makers in Detroit. One of the most bizarre was the Rock-Ola jukebox company and IBM were making M-1 carbines! The Frankfurt Aresenal in Phelidephy loaded 2 1/2 BILLION rounds of ammo in 1943 alone! In one MONTH we produced more guns than the Jappanse did during the entire war!

Answer 6

It had power before the war, but it remained largely to itself until after the war. The western world needed a leader and a defender against the percieved threat from the Soviet Union. Plus as Europe had been ravaged by the Second World War the American infastructure was intact which aided there power and influence. It was the power of empires before world war two, but the from the 1900's you can trace there decline and eventual collapse, the ottoman empire, the increasing demands of autonomy in India, the decline of the British Empire for example. In a way America stepped in as the next big superpower after 1945.

Answer 7

No. Our army was something like 30th in the world in size, far smaller than the armies of any of the major countries of Europe. Our Navy, however, was world class, considered second only to the British Navy (and it soon greatly eclipsed them after the US declared war).



Everyone knew we had the potential to be a superpower though.

Answer 8

steve got it right. The US was a sleeping giant, Japan's biggest mistake was to awaken that giant. the US was already supplying the allies though, ahem, British.

Answer 9

Both the Duke of Windsor (ex-King Edward VIII) and his grandfather Edward VII made state visits to the United States when each was the Prince of Wales. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother) made a semi-state visit to Washington and New York City in June 1939. (FDR heard from Canadian Prime-Minister Mackenzie King that they were coming on an official visit to Canada, and so he 'invited' them to come visit Washington and his estate at Hyde Park, NY. At least that was his official explanation.) If the King and Kings-to-be of the British Empire made official visits across the Atlantic Ocean to the former set of colonies that broke free and insulted their ancestor George III - the British Establishment certainly thought the U.S. was powerful enough to cultivate its friendship.



I don't think they thought of it as a SUPER power in the late 1850's - not equal to the Mother Country - but one with great potential. Worth keeping sweet. By the 1920's - A ranking power. America was practically Europe's creditor and greatest investor after World War I. 1939 - Britain knew war was coming to them and wanted Canadian soldiers and American goods (and ships) almost immediately.

Answer 10

Japanese Admiral Yamamoto thought of the U.S. as a "sleeping giant". I would guess most of the world thought along those same lines. I believe history proves he was right.

Answer 11

People certainly thought of it as a powerful nation at least since 1898 when the US defeat of Spain and the conquest of the Philippines made the US a world colonial power for the first time. Britain deliberately sought out a Naval Treaty with the US in recognition of this new status. Germany and her Allies were well aware that the entry of the US into WW1 was going to mean defeat. After WW1 the US turn to Isolationism certainly reduced its effective strength in world affairs, but everyone understood the US potential in case of war, in terms of man power and industrial resources. Had Japan not attacked Pearl Harbour, and had not FDR cleverly persuaded Congress to fight a European as well as an Far Eastern campaign then Germany would have succeeded in conquering Europe, despite the Soviet counter-attack.

Once the US entered the war it was producing armaments, planes and warships far faster than any other combatant.

I do not think people saw the US as potentially the unique super power that it became after WW2. Britain still had its huge Empire and Commonwealth. The Soviet Union was making rapid economic progress despite Stalin-ism. Germany, had it called a halt to its expansion in early 1939 would have come to dominate mainland Europe; it already exercised effective economic dominance over most of Eastern Europe. The success of Nazism would have cause the collapse of the Left in Western Europe. With a massive air force and a growing navy Germany would have become an international power. It was the war and the ruination of Europe's economic and industrial structures, as well as the British gift of the atomic research which led to the A-bomb, which created the US Super Power. After WW2 there really was no competition left except the USSR.

Answer 12

Good question.



USA was an economic superpower and applying that power wisely (even without military muscles) USA could either make WW2 less costly to humanity or prevent it altogether.



The Japanese case was certainly preventable. Japan grew her industries at that time and as any growing economy she needed natural resources. There were two parties in Japan - party of getting resources peacefully through trade and taking them by the force of arms. US assurances that resources in the Pacific would be available for Japanese corporations to buy at the open market (like japan gets them now) or through land concessions (like US herself had in Saudi Arabia at that time) would defeat the Japanese war party and US would have good economic ally instead of the mortal enemy.



Case with Hitler (and with Hitler's friend and partner Stalin) is more complex, could not be solved by US alone and would require coordinated efforts. But something could be done there as well to contain the socialist dictators instead of naming Hitler the Time's Man of the Year.



So, where was USA when it could prevent the WW2?

Answer 13

Before December 1941, the British, German and French press and public opinion was not very complimentary and they thought of USA:



1. A dangerous country where gangsters walked the streets of major cities carrying machine guns and shooting at policemen. Where the right to carry arms could make any street in any city look like the OK Corral at any moment. Almost every movie that came out of Hollywood confirmed this view.



2. A country that had slumped into economic depression because of its greed and idleness before and after the Wall Street Crash of 1929. There was also a good deal of blame that USA had plunged the rest of the financial world into serious depression, due to its inability to manage its own economy.



3. An immoral country where law-breaking, murder, prostitution and other sexual laxity were everyday happenings. Again, almost all the news from USA was about the moral turpitude of the rich and famous; Hollywood stars, politicians, celebrities on the radio, sportsmen and women, the rural community as well as city-dwellers. Mrs Simpson's "capture" of the Prince of Wales was regarded as "...just what you would expect from America."



BUT a few people in Europe assessed the USA as a major centre of industrial development if only a reason were to arise for such activity. Winston Churchill gambled in his dealings with Nazi Germany that USA would support Britain and France, secretly if necessary. In fact, his planning [plotting?] almost backfired. The USA did not engage in fighting until the war was over 2 years old, and then joined in only because of the attack on Pearl Harbour.



Others, such as Mussolini, Hitler and Daladier accepted the common belief that USA was effete, morally and financially bankrupt, and incapable of influencing international affairs. Until December 1941, they were right.



Since 1945, of course, USA as become the world's latest Empire with influence and colonies all around the globe. Time will tell how long this empire will last because, after all, every empire in history has collapsed eventually; often under its own weak heaviness.



OK?

Answer 14

America became a Superpower in 1918.



This fact was not recognised my many (both inside and outside America) for many years.



In 1942, America woke up, and found out that she was strong.