How Did the United States Become a Global Power?









With the world’s largest economy, hundreds of overseas military bases, and leadership positions in various international institutions, the United States is an undeniable global power.
The U.S. government is not transparent about the location of all of its overseas military bases, but this map shows bases with confirmed coordinates as of May 2020.But this was not always the case.

For much of the country’s history, presidents shielded the nation from international affairs. The first U.S. president, George Washington, declared in his farewell address, “It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliance with any portion of the foreign world.” In particular, he feared the consequences of involving the United States in Europe’s great power conflicts.

Instead, early American leaders focused on developing the young nation’s economy, expanding domestic territory, and getting Europe’s imperial powers to withdraw from the Western Hemisphere. In their worldview, the Atlantic and Pacific oceans served not as barriers to international leadership but rather as invaluable buffers that would allow the country to grow free of foreign interference.And, indeed, the United States grew. Through negotiation, purchase, conflict, and conquest, the country more than tripled in size between 1783 and 1853.Its economy took off after the Civil War. Between 1865 and 1898, coal production rose by 800 percent and railway track mileage by 567 percent. By the middle of the 1880s, the United States had surpassed Britain as the world’s leading producer of manufactured goods and steel. Yet despite their growing wealth, Americans still steered clear of foreign entanglement.

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