American Century
[8] Democracy and other American ideals would "do their mysterious work of lifting the life of mankind from the level of the beasts to what the Psalmist called a little lower than the angels".
[11] Beginning at the end of the 19th century, with the Spanish–American War in 1898 and the Boxer Rebellion, the United States began to play a more prominent role in the world beyond the North American continent.
Interventionism found its formal articulation in the 1904 Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, proclaiming a right for the United States to intervene anywhere in the Americas, a moment that underlined the emergent US regional hegemony.
Initially the United States had a small army, but, after the passage of the Selective Service Act, it drafted 2.8 million men,[14] and, by summer 1918, was sending 10,000 fresh soldiers to France every day.
The United States then adopted a policy of isolationism, having refused to endorse the 1919 Versailles Treaty or formally enter the League of Nations.
During the interwar period, economic protectionism took hold in the United States, particularly as a result of the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act which is credited by economists with the prolonging and worldwide propagation of the Great Depression.
The 800,000-member America First Committee vehemently opposed any American intervention in the European conflict, even as the US sold military aid to the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union through the Lend-Lease program.
By August, President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had drafted the Atlantic Charter to define goals for the post-war world.
[25][26] In an effort to maintain peace,[27] the Allies formed the United Nations, which came into existence on October 24, 1945,[28] and adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, as a common standard for all member states.
[30][31] Pax Americana represents the relative peace in the Western world, resulting in part from the preponderance of power enjoyed by the United States of America starting around the middle of the 20th century.
The US had strong ties with capitalist Western Europe, Latin America, British Commonwealth, and several East Asian countries (Korea, Taiwan, Japan).
The cultural effect of the US, often known as Americanization, is seen in the influence on other countries of US music, TV, films, art, and fashion, as well as the desire for freedom of speech and other guaranteed rights its residents enjoy.
With the advent of the new millennium, critics from the University of Illinois stated that it was a matter of debate whether the US was losing its superpower status, especially in relation to China's rise.
[39] Other analysts have made the case for the "American Century" fitting neatly between the US's late entry into World War I in 1917 and the inauguration of its 45th President in 2017.
