In what year/decade did the United States become the premier world power instead of the United Kingdom?

Question

I would imagine it was probably around the turn of the last century, and definitely before the first World War...

of course, there are numerous ways (GDP, army size, etc...) by which to measure which country is the top in the world, but my question is under the totality of the circumstances when did the USA become the most dominent country in the world?

Answer 1

You're bit out i'm afraid. The UK was the largest country in GDP, Military spending, Education etc in 1900. WW1 was bad for us but worse for the other nations. The USA should have overtaken us but they concentrated all their energies on their own nation and didn't really get involved in world politics. It was the UK that drew the line in the stand to protect Poland. Unfortunately for us we had the Navy but we relied on the French for the bulk of the land war in Europe. With the fall of France we were left with little options left.

After WW2 it was the USA that took control (esp in therm of the UN) in order that they wouldn't suffer another attack such as Pearl Harbour. I think you can therefore safely say that WW2 was the switch between UK and USA.

Answer 2

I'd say the 1950's.

Answer 3

President Teddy " Rough Rider" Roosevelt and his walk softly and carry a big stick diplomacy. With the US NAVY as the key diplomaic tool he had painted all of our ships white to show off to the world the power of America... and it worked. We enterd WWI and WWII on behalf of other nations... because no one would dare attack the United States. After that no one questioned our supremecy in world affairs until post WWI and the Soviet Unions big mistake of trying to keep up with us. They ARE history... we make history.

Answer 4

No, it was in the Spring of 1940 when the British got their asses handed to them by the n***s.

Answer 5

Actually it can be dated to the Suez Crisis of 1956.

The Egyptian "President" Nasser, an ally of the USSR, nationalized the Suez Canal, which was owned by the French Company that actually built it and the British Government which had bought most of the stock .

The Brits, French, and Israel launched an invasion of Egypt.  This is in line with what British Policy had been since the days of the Empire.

Now here were the U.S. three best allies invading an Arab nation that hated the USA and was an Ally of the USSR.

So President Eisenhower decided to....side with the UN and stab our allies in the back!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Crisis

Eisnehower ordered England and France to pull out. England said "ORDERED?  We don't take orders from you! We are the British Empire."  Eisenhower said he would cut off oil shipments to the UK (The US was still an oil exporter then, and the Saudis had already cut off oil shipments to England), and dump all the reserves of British currency that the U.S. Treasury had, thus causing the Pound to fall in value and collapse the British Economy.  Basicly he was threatening to plunge England back into the depression.

So Britain had to pull out of Suez, and after that so did the French and Israelis.  

Basicly this meant that Washington expected the Brits, French, and Israelis to clear anything they wanted to do with Washington. The Brits swallowed hard and decided that "There will always be an England, as long as there is a USA" and there wasn't a lot they could do about it.

The French have never forgiven the US, nor have the ever trusted the USA since. That is why the French make a point of having an independent foriegn policy from the US.  The US showed that we expect or allies to help us out when we need them (like Iraq) but when they need us, we feel free to toss them under the bus (see South Vietnam, Cambodia, etc. ) should that suit our purposes and objectives.

Israel remained our ally, but neither do they fully trust us. That is why they have spies here (like Johnathan Pollard) and why they sank the USS Liberty in 1967.  They knew the Liberty was in a position to detect their preparations for the 1967 Six Day war, and they knew that if the Liberty leaked this data their operation would not work and they knew that if the operation did not work, that would be the end of Israel...and they knew from 1956 that they could not trust the US Government...so they sank the Liberty just to be sure.

In any case...1956 showed that England had to take orders from Washington D.C. , even if England did not like doing so . That is pretty good evidence that the status of #1 had passed at that point.

Answer 6

Well, the quality of life in the U.S. exceeded that of the U.K. and other Western European countries by the late 19th and early 20th centuries. America was the economic powerhouse of the world well before World War I. That doesn't make it a superpower, though.

Britain's status as a superpower was really diminished after World War I. But the U.S. also became very isolationist after World War I. The interbellum and World War II was a time when there were really several superpowers - Germany, Japan, the United States, Soviet Union, British Empire, etc.

It was not until the final years of World War II when the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. emerged as the undisputable military and political superpowers of the world. And economically, the U.S. owned the entire globe at that point. On the other hand most other nations, including Britian and the Soviet Union, came out of the war bankrupted and in ruin. So to answer your question, I'd date it at around 1945.

Answer 7

I would say World War II.  Britain lost alrge chunks of its Empire including India.  It needed US to wins its war.