America Becomes a World Power

In 1900 the United States was busy with its own affairs, separated from Europe's quarrels by a wide ocean. By 1969 an American was standing on the Moon. This chapter tells the story of how, in about seventy years, America went from staying out of world events to leading them — through two world wars, a boom, a bust, and a long rivalry called the Cold War.

Over There: the First World War

When war broke out in Europe in 1914, most Americans wanted nothing to do with it. But German submarines began sinking ships carrying American passengers and goods, and in 1917 a secret German telegram (the Zimmermann Telegram) was discovered inviting Mexico to attack the United States. In April 1917 America declared war and joined Britain, France and their allies. About two million American soldiers — nicknamed 'doughboys' — crossed the Atlantic. Their fresh strength helped end the war in November 1918. America came home victorious, but many Americans decided they never wanted to be dragged into Europe's wars again.

Boom and Bust: the Twenties and the Great Depression

The 1920s roared. Cars rolled off Henry Ford's assembly lines, jazz music filled the radio (itself a brand-new invention), and cities glittered with electric light. But the good times were built on shaky borrowing. In October 1929 the stock market in New York crashed, and the boom collapsed into the Great Depression — the worst economic disaster in American history. By 1933 about one in four workers had no job. Families queued for bread; farms blew away in dust storms. President Franklin D. Roosevelt responded with the New Deal: a set of government programmes that gave people jobs building roads, bridges, dams and parks, and created safety nets like Social Security that still exist today.

The Second World War

War returned to Europe in 1939, and again America tried to stay out. That ended on 7 December 1941, when Japanese aircraft attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, sinking ships and killing about 2,400 Americans. The next day the United States declared war on Japan; within days it was also at war with Germany. The whole country mobilised. Factories that had made cars now made tanks and aircraft. Millions of women took factory jobs — the poster figure 'Rosie the Riveter' became their symbol. On 6 June 1944 — D-Day — American, British, Canadian and allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy in France, beginning the liberation of western Europe. Germany surrendered in May 1945. During the war the Allies also uncovered the full horror of the Holocaust, the Nazi murder of six million Jewish people and millions of others — a crime the world vowed never to forget. In August 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The two bombs killed well over one hundred thousand people, most of them civilians, and Japan surrendered days later. Historians still debate the decision; what is certain is that the human cost was immense, and the world had entered the nuclear age.

The Cold War: a rivalry of ideas

After 1945 only two 'superpowers' remained: the United States and the Soviet Union. They never fought each other directly — that is why it is called the Cold War — but they competed everywhere: in ideas (democracy and free markets versus communism), in weapons, and in space. When the Soviets cut off road access to West Berlin in 1948, American and British pilots flew food and coal into the city for nearly a year — the Berlin Airlift. Later, in 1961, a concrete wall was built across Berlin to stop people fleeing the communist East; the Berlin Wall became the most famous symbol of the divided world until it fell in 1989.

One Small Step

The space race was the Cold War's most spectacular contest. The Soviets launched the first satellite (Sputnik, 1957) and the first man in space (1961). America answered with the Apollo programme, and on 20 July 1969 Neil Armstrong stepped onto the Moon, saying it was 'one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind'. Around 600 million people watched on television — at the time, the largest audience in history.